[Genuine Realist]

Let's all celebrate Scott Atlas given a platform for his speech.  

He's making wild assumptions not backed by anything other than his own ass, which is perfect for Fox News. There are many high risk people who are avoiding others like the plague, out of choice. Sure they'd like to be with loved ones, but we're talking about missing one holiday to ensure they and others see more in the future. Atlas claiming that many people are having their last Thanksgiving may be true, but how the hell does he know who such people are, and how many more will have their last one as a product of following his stupid advice?

[tweet]https://twitter.com/NikkiMcR/status/1328502026381176832[/tweet]

Well, he's right for a number of elderly who listen to him, because it may well be their last Thanksgiving when junior brings home COVID-19 from the university :/

Or maybe the the elderly person will miss a visit that would have come off swimmingly and sink further into an end-of-life depression that could have been avoided.

The point that myself, Mick, teejers, and others try to make from time to time is that there are other considerations in play here - the education of children, cohesion of families, and so forth. They are not as easily quantifiable as case rates, hospitalizations, deaths, and so on, but they exist, and the damage done to them is just as real.

In some ways, the tunnel vision of some medicos reminds me of the 'body counts' from the old Vietnamese War days of the 60's. It was an easy quantification of the war's 'success' or failure, and you may recall the Best and Brightest (in Halberstam's phrase) fell for it. It's easy here to push for some draconian lock down, celebrate because the case rate is going down, and ignore the rising social anxiety, with the inevitable rise in family distress, maybe child and spousal abuse, depression and so on. You will not accept those as consequences of the over harsh policy, but they are.

A balanced approach isn't going to please anyone. You'll have more disease than you'd like if everyone was in lockdown, and more social distress than if no one was. But that's in the nature of balance. Right now, I think a more aggressive lockdown seems appropriate because of the spike. But even now, push back is a good thing, a very good thing - and, by the way, an essential hallmark of a free society.

[Genuine Realist]

Let's all celebrate Scott Atlas given a platform for his speech.  

He's making wild assumptions not backed by anything other than his own ass, which is perfect for Fox News. There are many high risk people who are avoiding others like the plague, out of choice. Sure they'd like to be with loved ones, but we're talking about missing one holiday to ensure they and others see more in the future. Atlas claiming that many people are having their last Thanksgiving may be true, but how the hell does he know who such people are, and how many more will have their last one as a product of following his stupid advice?

[tweet]https://twitter.com/NikkiMcR/status/1328502026381176832[/tweet]

Well, he's right for a number of elderly who listen to him, because it may well be their last Thanksgiving when junior brings home COVID-19 from the university :/

Or maybe the the elderly person will miss a visit that would have come off swimmingly and sink further into an end-of-life depression that could have been avoided.

The point that myself, Mick, teejers, and others try to make from time to time is that there are other considerations in play here - the education of children, cohesion of families, and so forth. They are not as easily quantifiable as case rates, hospitalizations, deaths, and so on, but they exist, and the damage done to them is just as real.

In some ways, the tunnel vision of some medicos reminds me of the 'body counts' from the old Vietnamese War days of the 60's. It was an easy quantification of the war's 'success' or failure, and you may recall the Best and Brightest (in Halberstam's phrase) fell for it. It's easy here to push for some draconian lock down, celebrate because the case rate is going down, and ignore the rising social anxiety, with the inevitable rise in family distress, maybe child and spousal abuse, depression and so on. You will not accept those as consequences of the over harsh policy, but they are.

A balanced approach isn't going to please anyone. You'll have more disease than you'd like if everyone was in lockdown, and more social distress than if no one was. But that's in the nature of balance. Right now, I think a more aggressive lockdown seems appropriate because of the spike. But even now, push back is a good thing, a very good thing - and, by the way, an essential hallmark of a free society.