It's hard to argue with
Paul Krugman's logic on how America's leaders bungled the Covid-19 pandemic and why its school kids will be left to pay the price.
A brief history of the past four months in America:
Experts: Don’t rush to reopen, this isn’t over.
Donald Trump: LIBERATE!
Covid-19: Wheee!
Trump officials: Here’s our opposition research on Anthony Fauci.
And we’re now faced with an agonizing choice: Do we reopen schools, creating risks of a further viral explosion, or do we keep children home, with severe negative effects on their learning?
None of this had to happen. Other countries stuck with their lockdowns long enough to reduce infections to rates much lower than those prevailing here; Covid-19 death rates per capita in the European Union are only a 10th those in the United States — and falling — while ours are rising fast. As a result, they’re in a position to reopen schools fairly safely.
The road not taken.
...doing what was necessary to bring the coronavirus under control would have been annoying, but entirely feasible.
But that was the road not taken. Instead, many states not only rushed to reopen, they reopened stupidly. Instead of being treated as a cheap, effective way to fight contagion, face masks became a front in the culture war. Activities that posed an obvious risk of feeding the pandemic went unchecked: Large gatherings were permitted, bars reopened.
And the cost of those parties and open bars extends beyond the thousands of Americans who will be killed or suffer permanent health damage as a result of Covid-19’s resurgence. The botched reopening has also endangered something that, unlike drinking in groups, can’t be suspended without doing long-run damage: in-person education.
..
We’re now facing a terrible, unnecessary dilemma. If we reopen in-person education, we risk feeding an out-of-control pandemic. If we don’t, we impair the development of millions of American students, inflicting long-term damage on their lives and careers.
And the reason we’re in this position is that states, cheered on by the Trump administration, rushed to allow large parties and reopen bars. In a real sense America drank away its children’s future.
Now what? At this point there are probably as many infected Americans as there were in March. So what we should be doing is admitting that we blew it, and doing a severe lockdown all over again — and this time listening to the experts before reopening. Unfortunately, it’s now too late to avoid disrupting education, but the sooner we deal with this the sooner we can get our society back on track.
4 comments:
Back to this other side-show re the US Supremes. Is Roberts playing 'the long game' trying to prevent an expansion to 15 with 6 new DEM appointed judges?
" A diverse coalition of advocacy groups recently endorsed court expansion to reverse the 2016 theft of the court, when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell squelched Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland. Support for the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch and, most especially, Brett Kavanaugh hangs like an albatross around the necks of many key senators.
Our focus on the court is making a difference in Americans’ lives. Chief Justice John Roberts is a shrewd political actor and observer. Make no mistake, data shows that Roberts is every bit as dangerous as his extreme colleagues, such as Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. But he also understands that his political and policy aims depend on the Court’s perceived legitimacy, and he is willing to play a long game. The threat of court reform seems to have influenced Roberts’ decisions to reject Trump’s racist repeal of protections for Dreamers, Louisiana’s unconstitutional attempt to dismantle abortion rights, and legalized workplace discrimination against LGBTQ Americans"
https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/threatening-to-reform-the-supreme-court-worked-for-now/
During this pandemic, Mound, there were two forces that came together: Trump's inability to lead and America's inability to muster depth of character - a perfect storm if there ever was one.
NPoV, Roberts might be hoping to avert what that intellectually corrupt court has coming to it. This is bound to be a fracture point if Biden takes the White House in November but Team Mitch retains control of the Senate.
I didn't have the full measure of America's dysfunction until I saw those thugs with their masks and assault rifles storm Michigan's state house. That drove home that everything in America, even a pandemic, is fodder for their profoundly destructive culture war. Everything is politicized which leaves no room for prudence. Those who urge caution and restraint are viewed as the enemies of the other side's constitutional rights. Can it get any more mad than that?
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