[lex24]

None of this surprises me much.  People are both social and creatures of habit.  Neither enforced solitude, radical behavioral change, nor enforced economic destruction has much appeal for the average person, whatever the risks.

Yes, this describes a failure of leadership. How many times did you want to run gassers in practice?  How many times did you want to run the same play 50 times?  Without anyone taking the reins to instill leadership over a group, you end up with the situation you describe, Mick.

But don't try to insinuate we are ungovernable as a people. We are only ungovernable when we aren't governed.

Ungovernable?  Of course not.  But skepticism of government is a major part of who we are.   

There has also been a slew of incorrect information.  Masks are a great example. Early of the Health leaders were saying not necessary.  Now that’s changed. Mortality rate.  Heard very high numbers early on. About 4.3 percent.  Now looking like 0.2 to 0.4. Still higher than flu.  But (fortunately) much less deadly.  Transmission rate.  Early on said 4 to 1.  Now believed closer to 1 to 1.  Transmission from objects - wipe down everything they said.  Now, risk from surfaces very low.

The vast majority of people have followed the orders from their state and local officials.  And it is only state and local that can issue such orders.  So we were “governed”. And for the most part people complied.

Further, you apparently are in Connecticut. I suspect the governance there was different than in Calif. Perhaps I’m wrong on that. But I doubt it. Here, we have the state orders and each county, through their health directors, also issuing orders. I have not been a fan of unelected officials having the unfettered authority to issue orders that drastically impact all of our lives. Obviously they should be heavily involved in the process. But in the end, if you are going to differentiate by county (which is logical in a state the size of Ca) the orders should be coming from the Board of Supervisors. They are the County elected officials.

Finally, it’s pretty easy to scoff at the economic impact - when it doesn’t negatively impact you. A little tougher when you live paycheck to paycheck, struggle financially to begin with, you lose your job and your industry is facing major changes that will impact you moving forward.

---

My wife and I live in a Maine county that has had a low number of cases. Yesterday we visited a town about 40 minutes from home. I went into a pub to buy two four-packs of beer. We saw the pub was empty except for one other couple, and we decided to sit down and have a drink, the first time we had sit in a dining establishment since March. It felt adequately safe to us, given the lack of people inside and the tiny number of local cases. Well, about 20 minutes later another couple walks in. The man made a snide comment about masks as he entered. We overheard the couple talking about how they had just come up from Florida. The man coughed twice. We were probably 20 feet away from the couple. Yeah, the other couple probably didn't have the virus, and even if they did we were probably far enough away and our time probably did not overlap enough for us to get a large viral load, but we're still a little worried. Quarantine rules are a joke because there is no way of enforcing them and a large percentage of the population still thinks this disease is a hoax. We want to support local businesses, but we regret our decision to have a drink inside. We'll be going back to takeout exclusively.

Who thinks it’s a hoax?  I’d love to see backup for that statement.  There are those who believe it’s been overblown. But hoax?

---

Yeah, it really does seem like both the populace, as well as the authorities in charge of them, have basically given up. This was NYC on Friday night:
[tweet]https://twitter.com/evgrieve/status/1271601468051767296?s=20[/tweet] 

I was on a zoom call last night with grad school friends, some of whom have stayed in NYC and they said when they went out to get ice cream on Friday night it looked like people were at a rave for how many were packed into, and spilling out of, bars. And no one wearing a mask. And this was NYC, for pete's sake, where you would THINK folks would have experienced the trauma of COVID-19 firsthand.

The zoom call also had friends who live in Seattle - they think CHAZ is also a joke, but there's zero leadership in terms of resolving the situation, and their growing list of demands are essentially unanswerable by a single mayor. So there's that, too.

We all concluded that at the moment the U.S. is a de facto failed state where everyone essentially needs to look out for themselves. It's crazy how quickly things have unraveled.

“De facto failed state”. Please. We are dealing with some tough situations.  We will move past it.  One of the major problems is we dwell constantly in the negative.  Fueled by politicians, media and social media intent on dividing us.  We’ve survived worse.  Courage.

[lex24]

None of this surprises me much.  People are both social and creatures of habit.  Neither enforced solitude, radical behavioral change, nor enforced economic destruction has much appeal for the average person, whatever the risks.

Yes, this describes a failure of leadership. How many times did you want to run gassers in practice?  How many times did you want to run the same play 50 times?  Without anyone taking the reins to instill leadership over a group, you end up with the situation you describe, Mick.

But don't try to insinuate we are ungovernable as a people. We are only ungovernable when we aren't governed.

Ungovernable?  Of course not.  But skepticism of government is a major part of who we are.   

There has also been a slew of incorrect information.  Masks are a great example. Early of the Health leaders were saying not necessary.  Now that’s changed. Mortality rate.  Heard very high numbers early on. About 4.3 percent.  Now looking like 0.2 to 0.4. Still higher than flu.  But (fortunately) much less deadly.  Transmission rate.  Early on said 4 to 1.  Now believed closer to 1 to 1.  Transmission from objects - wipe down everything they said.  Now, risk from surfaces very low.

The vast majority of people have followed the orders from their state and local officials.  And it is only state and local that can issue such orders.  So we were “governed”. And for the most part people complied.

Further, you apparently are in Connecticut. I suspect the governance there was different than in Calif. Perhaps I’m wrong on that. But I doubt it. Here, we have the state orders and each county, through their health directors, also issuing orders. I have not been a fan of unelected officials having the unfettered authority to issue orders that drastically impact all of our lives. Obviously they should be heavily involved in the process. But in the end, if you are going to differentiate by county (which is logical in a state the size of Ca) the orders should be coming from the Board of Supervisors. They are the County elected officials.

Finally, it’s pretty easy to scoff at the economic impact - when it doesn’t negatively impact you. A little tougher when you live paycheck to paycheck, struggle financially to begin with, you lose your job and your industry is facing major changes that will impact you moving forward.

---

My wife and I live in a Maine county that has had a low number of cases. Yesterday we visited a town about 40 minutes from home. I went into a pub to buy two four-packs of beer. We saw the pub was empty except for one other couple, and we decided to sit down and have a drink, the first time we had sit in a dining establishment since March. It felt adequately safe to us, given the lack of people inside and the tiny number of local cases. Well, about 20 minutes later another couple walks in. The man made a snide comment about masks as he entered. We overheard the couple talking about how they had just come up from Florida. The man coughed twice. We were probably 20 feet away from the couple. Yeah, the other couple probably didn't have the virus, and even if they did we were probably far enough away and our time probably did not overlap enough for us to get a large viral load, but we're still a little worried. Quarantine rules are a joke because there is no way of enforcing them and a large percentage of the population still thinks this disease is a hoax. We want to support local businesses, but we regret our decision to have a drink inside. We'll be going back to takeout exclusively.

Who thinks it’s a hoax?  I’d love to see backup for that statement.  There are those who believe it’s been overblown. But hoax?

---

Yeah, it really does seem like both the populace, as well as the authorities in charge of them, have basically given up. This was NYC on Friday night:
[tweet]https://twitter.com/evgrieve/status/1271601468051767296?s=20[/tweet] 

I was on a zoom call last night with grad school friends, some of whom have stayed in NYC and they said when they went out to get ice cream on Friday night it looked like people were at a rave for how many were packed into, and spilling out of, bars. And no one wearing a mask. And this was NYC, for pete's sake, where you would THINK folks would have experienced the trauma of COVID-19 firsthand.

The zoom call also had friends who live in Seattle - they think CHAZ is also a joke, but there's zero leadership in terms of resolving the situation, and their growing list of demands are essentially unanswerable by a single mayor. So there's that, too.

We all concluded that at the moment the U.S. is a de facto failed state where everyone essentially needs to look out for themselves. It's crazy how quickly things have unraveled.

“De facto failed state”. Please. We are dealing with some tough situations.  We will move past it.  One of the major problems is we dwell constantly in the negative.  Fueled by politicians, media and social media intent on dividing us.  We’ve survived worse.  Courage.