This is a decent take ABD....I agree with some of it. I think economic fear (how quickly our markets collapsed, job losses, etc.) definitely played a role in the attempts to restart the opening. That and so many parts of the country (outside of the northeast) were only experiencing a nominal effect of the virus at the time. Also, on the surface, lockdowns didn't appear to really have much of an effect on the spread nor the deaths in March, April, and into May. In some areas, lockdowns/shelter in place only delayed the inevitable.
Our lock-downs were HIGHLY ineffective... the point of the lock-down is for the virus to stop spreading enough so you can find out who has it, then start doing better testing and tracing it. None of that happened. We started testing a TON, but the tests themselves had little value. People were waiting 5 days, 9 days, 14 days, or longer to get test results. National average is still 5. At this point I have no doubt you all know people getting tested. 3 days is about best case scenario. Employers are requiring workers to take PERSONAL TIME to get tested while at the same time not wanting anyone to bring the virus into the workplace, so people are getting a test and going about their lives and spreading it around while they wait 5 days.
Politicians keep boasting about the number of tests, but if you take forever to get people results they have already spread it to others, who already spread it to others, etc. It's a total failure in technology and in quarantine procedures.
In the end, I believe the reasons are complex why we are seeing what we are seeing right now. Thank God treatments are getting better everyday....which will save lives. Again, I think this thing is here for the long haul and in some ways, we as a society are going to need to learn how to adapt and live with this virus without too much of a damaging effect on our economy. It's a fine line.
Trump is a buffoon, but at the end of the day the states didn't do the right thing either for the same reason, which was a gamble to protect the economy. They rolled the dice, and didn't win, that's all this is. All the states are just as much in on it as Trump/Pence.
All the governors know the economic situation as well, and it's the part that people aren't talking enough about... The virus has the potential to literally kill our economy. With a half-ass shutdown (still able to go to stores, order food from restaurants, don't have to wear a mask, lots of people still went to work, etc) and disrupted commerce, not even close to fully shut off, the economy had a gun to its head with a bullet in the chamber. 45, 50 days. Boom, it's done. Market dropped 40%, including some huge plunges.... Millions of people laid off and on unemployment... and John Q. Public opening up the checkbook to bail out the system again.
Whether you are Gavin Newsome, Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis, or Andrew Cuomo, you have the same reality. Get back to work, and more important, GET BACK TO BUYING THINGS, or you are in a gigantic world of sh!t in a hurry.
That's what the school debate is really about.... no school = mass economic problems because the parents can't work, money gets tight, they can't buy things, etc. If the decisions was purely about safety, it's an easy decision, but it's not. It's about commerce.
