[Mick]

I think it is important to note here how closely interwoven the social fabric is. I have the sense, as yet unquantifiable, that the complete lockdown of March to May was massive overkill; that we could have realized pretty much the same results with much less drastic measures, e.g., the social distancing that is becoming common practice. My belief is that the Great Beast shares that intuition - and, as a result, there is an understandable cynicism about the much less drastic and more well grounded measures on which we now insist, e.g., masks.

Most of the persons posting on this forum make their living in a manner that was not effected by the lockdown, medical practitioners, tech workers who can stay at home, pensioners (yours truly). For us, the lockdown was a massive inconvenience, but not fatal. For fellow citizens who made their living in ways that were directly impacted (your brother), philosophical acceptance is a lot harder to come by. If you had your living wiped out, your homeownership endangered, your children's education imperiled, learning that complete lockdown was not completely necessary isn't something you just shrug off. It's infuriating.

That fury shows up as a fully understandable cynicism about the protocols now being urged. IF you were wrong then, what makes you think you're right now?  There's plenty of reason to blame Trump, and rightly so. But to the extent Fauci and others have lost the confidence of the public, they do share in that blame. They were cheerfully willing to inflict quite a lot more pain than might have been necessary. Mick and others wondered at the time. You pay for mistakes like that.

Kashkari of The Fed wants a drastic, six-week shutdown:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/08/feds-kas...virus.html

Coming on the heels of the March through May devastation, I don't see how that helps things.  Maybe the 19 - 23 million evictions expected by the end of September will help.
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-post...-eviction/

Incidentally, just read this morning that 60% of calls to California's unemployment insurance dept go unanswered.  That surprises me.  I doubt that they're taking 40% of their calls.  My cousin went on unemployment and they didn't answer 43 of the 45 calls he made.  That, coupled with the lack of a second stimulus tells me there's a gigantic F-U from the haves to the have nots.

[Mick]

I think it is important to note here how closely interwoven the social fabric is. I have the sense, as yet unquantifiable, that the complete lockdown of March to May was massive overkill; that we could have realized pretty much the same results with much less drastic measures, e.g., the social distancing that is becoming common practice. My belief is that the Great Beast shares that intuition - and, as a result, there is an understandable cynicism about the much less drastic and more well grounded measures on which we now insist, e.g., masks.

Most of the persons posting on this forum make their living in a manner that was not effected by the lockdown, medical practitioners, tech workers who can stay at home, pensioners (yours truly). For us, the lockdown was a massive inconvenience, but not fatal. For fellow citizens who made their living in ways that were directly impacted (your brother), philosophical acceptance is a lot harder to come by. If you had your living wiped out, your homeownership endangered, your children's education imperiled, learning that complete lockdown was not completely necessary isn't something you just shrug off. It's infuriating.

That fury shows up as a fully understandable cynicism about the protocols now being urged. IF you were wrong then, what makes you think you're right now?  There's plenty of reason to blame Trump, and rightly so. But to the extent Fauci and others have lost the confidence of the public, they do share in that blame. They were cheerfully willing to inflict quite a lot more pain than might have been necessary. Mick and others wondered at the time. You pay for mistakes like that.

Kashkari of The Fed wants a drastic, six-week shutdown:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/08/feds-kas...virus.html

Coming on the heels of the March through May devastation, I don't see how that helps things.  Maybe the 19 - 23 million evictions expected by the end of September will help.
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-post...-eviction/

Incidentally, just read this morning that 60% of calls to California's unemployment insurance dept go unanswered.  That surprises me.  I doubt that they're taking 40% of their calls.  My cousin went on unemployment and they didn't answer 43 of the 45 calls he made.  That, coupled with the lack of a second stimulus tells me there's a gigantic F-U from the haves to the have nots.