Tuesday, April 28, 2020

‘Reopen America’ Is Not a Synonym for ‘Ignore the Coronavirus’

‘Reopen America’ Is Not a Synonym for ‘Ignore the Coronavirus’
Excerpt: If you tune in to the latest episode of The Editors podcast, you’ll notice intermittent notes of impatience in my rants. The United States and the world have to make a series of difficult decisions, choosing from a menu of bad options that all involve considerable risk. I quipped that this is a time for the grown-ups to make a decision. The metaphorical children in our national debate, the folks who cannot handle nuance or grasp different degrees of risk and who instantly demonize any position that isn’t theirs, ought to be quiet. Most of the country is in week seven of quarantine, lockdown, shelter-in-place or other restrictions. These rules look different on April 28 than they did on March 28. The country enacted a set of rules that were designed to help hospitals to continue to operate safely; in the process, they cut off most of the revenue for hospitals. I cannot think of a more spectacularly ironic headline than “Mayo Clinic to furlough or reduce pay of 30,000 employees” in the middle of a global health crisis.

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