Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Not so sure

Look: I think that the CoronaPanic is somewhat overblown.

If you take New York (the Metro area, not the state...but including the edge of New Jersey where people commute from) out of the equation, then this isn't much worse than a standard Flu season, although a bit more time compressed.

There is a HUGE push to "reopen" the economy, releasing folks to go back to normal, for whatever level of normal they can recover to.

I'm not so sure if that is a good idea....

I mean, we have done the Kinda-sorta mandated but without any force of law but still sorta semi enforced "lockdown" bit....and have damaged our economy to the point where the ripple effect of the damage will be felt for months, if not years

And yet, really, what will another two weeks hurt at this point? Schools are closed for the rest of the year, pretty much all large gatherings (ball games, races, concerts, etc) are cancelled until at least mid summer....
People are laid off but are now getting some unemployment, so another week or three won't appreciably change their economic position.....Businesses are getting some relief, (some of them, anyway) and things have, for the most part, stabilized on the economic front.

I'd hate to see a minor downtrend change back to an upward tick in cases or even deaths in a week or so after the "reopening" of the country. Another two weeks will tell us for sure., at a small economic price. And another 21 days gives even more time for the curve to decay another two cycles...no matter what the curve actually looks like.

I'd hate for all the sacrifice and economic damage we've already done to be wasted. At this point, we might as well make sure. I would think another three weeks , say May 10th-ish would not be a bad idea.

We are fucked economically either way, so why not? 

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