Reply to "Opening up" means risking your life

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele]Here are a few things that I think are readily apparent:

1) Without a vaccine, near universal testing, or sweeping use of PPE, "opening up" will spread the coronavirus. We don't have to guess about this. Just look at the Smithfield Foods meat processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Nearly 600 employees have tested positive for COVID-19. In addition, 135 others have caught it from those employees. The plant has now been forced to close.

2) Many of the loudest voices calling for "opening up" will not be putting themselves at risk. Higher income folks will continue to telework and socially distance themselves. Trump and Pence dispute the need for widespread testing, but require anyone coming into contact with them be tested beforehand. This sort of hypocrisy will extend throughout the ruling class. "Opening up" means telling working folks to risk their lives for the stock portfolios of those who will remain safely protected.

3) It is true that job losses and economic suffering are being caused by the shutdown. The impact of this can be reduced through government assistance. There is no cure for death.

4) Trump, by offering public support for those protesting shutdown polices, is willing to sacrifice even his own supporters. Similarly, with deaths heavily weighted toward the elderly, Trump willingly endangers the most dependable source of Republican votes.

5) The "original sin" of the US response to COVID-19 was the failure to introduce widespread testing. This, combined with a lost six weeks while Trump attempted to deny the reality of the epidemic, has caused a deep setback for the US response and led to countless unnecessary deaths. Trump is simultaneously pushing testing responsibility to governors and supporting protests against those same governors. He may well have calculated that renewed disease outbreaks in Democratic-led states would help him politically. He is desperate to place blame on everyone from mayors, governors, and members of Congress, to the WHO, or to the media, but will accept no responsibility himself. He is driven by political expediency and willing to sacrifice lives in the process.

The bottom line is that if someone wants to "open up", tell them to go first. Don't put yourself at risk for someone else's stock portfolio or Trump's political goals.

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Good points.  I would argue though that the original sin was not calling for use of masks immediately.  Testing would have needed to start way earlier and with full contact tracing.  The US dismantled its public health system a long time ago....so no infrastructure to get that going.  Compare to Canada, which is kicking ass with contact tracing and keeping numbers in control.[/quote]

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