It isn’t the power of central planners that’s helping to flatten the COVID-19 curve, but the wisdom of individual Americans when they receive factual information, according to Jonah Goldberg at TheDispatch.com. Is it possible that everyone is doing the best they can with the information they have, and that hindsight critiques of “exaggerated” death projections may miss the point.
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4 replies on “Curve Flattening: Wisdom of Individual Americans vs. Power of Central Planners”
The thing that has gladdened my heart through this crisis is that mostly we acted like Americans–the real deal, not the leftist version. We have basically trusted each other, we have helped each other, we have businesses that made sure that we have had the basics to get through it, we have acted wisely to a great degree, we (not including the destructive Dems) have not played a blame game but have looked for how to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. I am proud of us–USA!
Another thing to consider has to do with the football analogy. Those team meetings that they have a few days after the game is to see where they could have done things better NEXT TIME. They watch the videos and see what was done wrong–in hindsight–and correct that for next time so that they play better with fewer mistakes now that they know what the past mistakes were. No way to know that in advance but certainly a way to make it better in the future. I am sure that there will be a lot of “team meetings” when this is over, and if it happens again, we will do even better than we did this time with our limited knowledge and experience with Team Covid19.
Jonah Goldberg? Seriously? Not who I go to for any rational analysis.
Bill and I disagree on this. I don’t accept that this is any more serious than what we would expect in a severe flu season. First line responder anecdotes from a few overwhelmed hospitals is not evidence. A health care professional that witnesses an event for the first time does not mean that other health care professionals haven’t previously witnessed similar events. The health consequences of the lock down are also proving negative. Elective surgeries are canceled while hospitals sit empty. How about transplant cases where organs are not making it to the recipients due to canceled flights? There are already reports of this happening. In normal circumstances, the organs often barely arrive in time due to distance and other logistical issues. Again, the ORIGINAL models predicted 1 to 2 million deaths if we do nothing and 100,000 to 240,0000 IF we follow guidelines. Yet within days, BEFORE guidelines had time to be effective, the numbers dropped to 60,000. (This means that the original model was flawed, not that the guidelines were effective.) Some extremely qualified epidemiologists (John Ioannidis for one) have disputed Fauci and Birx from the beginning and their critiques are not hindsight. Social distancing suggestions from the government and voluntary compliance would have been sufficient.
Very well said, and, boy, Douglas, I couldn’t agree with you more. Hear, hear!