04-10-2020, 10:08 AM
Ezra Klein has an article about this that I think is enlightening: https://www.vox.com/2020/4/10/21215494/c...employment
The general point is that every plan he looked into (which come from entities that span the political spectrum) envisions opening under circumstances that are nearly impossible to imagine. You either need to construct a testing apparatus far beyond what we're currently doing, a surveillance apparatus that's basically unimaginable in America (and possibly not even legal), wait it out for a vaccine, or let hundreds of thousands die. These are... not good options. It seems like the mass testing regime is the most plausible way to open early, but it would take some serious state/federal leadership to get us there. Maybe CA could pull it off without the feds (who as he points out haven't announced a plan of any form), but it would be tough. And the question of compliance is a difficult one.
There just aren't any good options here.
The general point is that every plan he looked into (which come from entities that span the political spectrum) envisions opening under circumstances that are nearly impossible to imagine. You either need to construct a testing apparatus far beyond what we're currently doing, a surveillance apparatus that's basically unimaginable in America (and possibly not even legal), wait it out for a vaccine, or let hundreds of thousands die. These are... not good options. It seems like the mass testing regime is the most plausible way to open early, but it would take some serious state/federal leadership to get us there. Maybe CA could pull it off without the feds (who as he points out haven't announced a plan of any form), but it would be tough. And the question of compliance is a difficult one.
There just aren't any good options here.