Two things.
First, this thread from Bethany Mandel, on an issue I’ve discussed before:
Remember when we were told we had to flatten the curve and we’d lockdown for a few weeks to ramp up PPE and free up ventilators or else we’d have to start death panels? When did that turn into indefinite lockdowns and economic destruction because “if it saves one life?”
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) May 6, 2020
This isn’t about greed. It’s survival. People can’t buy food or pay rent or mortgages. Small businesses are closing. Dentists and doctors are going into the red. Schools are going to start closing. This is the destruction of society we’re talking about.
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) May 6, 2020
There will be no pediatricians or general doctors or physical therapists or nurses or home health aides. No dentists. No zoos or aquariums. No private schools. No restaurants or caterers. No hairdressers or nail technicians. No gyms. No summer camps or daycares.
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) May 6, 2020
We never had ventilator shortages. My local pediatric ER converted to a COVID ward and now sits empty. What are we waiting on here? I’d genuinely like an answer. A vaccine? Because if that’s it, our society will be absolutely wrecked in the meantime.
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) May 6, 2020
You can call me a Grandma killer. I’m not sacrificing my home, food on the table, all of our docs and dentists, every form of pleasure (museums, zoos, restaurants), all my kids’ teachers in order to make other people comfortable. If you want to stay locked down, do. I’m not.
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) May 6, 2020
Doesn’t mean it won’t be done responsibly but I am just. I am done. I feel lied to about the terms of this lockdown and I regret ever trusting that it would be done responsibly.
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) May 6, 2020
Doesn’t mean it won’t be done responsibly but I am just. I am done. I feel lied to about the terms of this lockdown and I regret ever trusting that it would be done responsibly.
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) May 6, 2020
And of course, #GrandmaKiller is trending. The preening self-benediction from some of the people making this trend on social media is vomit-inducing. I’ll be frank: Have any of these hypocrites had any food delivered? Packages? Have they ordered takeout? Have they gone to grocery stores? Used electricity? Relied upon their area’s sewer system? By doing any of this all of these people have admitted that they are perfectly cool with risking lives just so long as it is convenient for them. Unless these people haven’t left their homes since the lockdown began and are entirely self-sufficient with farms and compost toilets, they’re all murderers, too, by their logic. Most of these people are elitist one percenters still pulling a paycheck from the comfort of their sofa (others are making more money through unemployment and CARES to not work, but what after that? Those businesses may no longer exist). If you express a desire to leave house arrest and generate an income so you and your family can eat too, these sanctimonious loons call you a murderer because your need to generate income is less worthy than their desire to have their pizza delivered. If you want to have a real discussion about class warfare, there it is.
They’re all risks. Stop acting otherwise. There is no such thing as an absence of risk, which dovetails with my second thing:
Progressives are trying to shame Republican governors as reckless murderers who are risking lives to reopen:
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During a private call on Friday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott admitted “every scientific and medical report shows” state reopenings lead to more coronavirus cases, even as he publicly announced plans that week to end the state's stay-at-home order https://t.co/xi5f58TMgl pic.twitter.com/9VUW9z3TKd— Harry Siegel (@harrysiegel) May 5, 2020
“How do we know reopening businesses won’t result in faster spread of more cases of COVID-19?” Abbott asked during a Friday afternoon phone call with members of the state legislature and Congress. “Listen, the fact of the matter is pretty much every scientific and medical report shows that whenever you have a reopening—whether you want to call it a reopening of businesses or of just a reopening of society—in the aftermath of something like this, it actually will lead to an increase and spread. It’s almost ipso facto.”
“The more that you have people out there, the greater the possibility is for transmission,” Abbott said on the call, which a spokesperson confirmed was authentic on Tuesday. “The goal never has been to get transmission down to zero.”
Siegel and the author of this piece seem to think that “flattening the curve” was about killing the virus. Killing the virus was never the intent of this lockdown. Ever. No one ever said this. The point of the lockdown was about reducing the number of people infected at the same time and avoid overwhelming the medical system. Furthermore, the idea that government needs to assure us of zero risk before reopening is insane. I discussed this on my program today:
We know what will happen if we stay locked down. We know that we will be much more successful if we incorporate a balanced approach to reopening. “But the risks!” say the people who write articles like the one above. That’s just it: There is always risk in freedom. Freedom isn’t a guarantee of happiness, opportunity, or comfort. Freedom means you are at liberty to pursue these things yourself, for yourself. Watch the full video, it’s short.