I replied to this meme, which I've seen all over the internet for about a week, as follows: Some people think this is brilliant and others think it is idiotic and obtuse. Clearly there are two underlying views of reality which are different from each other:
The idea that we can “open the country back up because the curve has flattened” is like saying “the parachute has slowed our rate of descent, so we can take it off now.”— Granite (@oneminutecall) April 17, 2020
I think the obvious two are:
1. Social distancing is working--the flattening of the curve is due to our efforts.
2. The economic costs are either being completely ignored as if they don't exist at all, or it is assumed that they are outweighed by the life saving benefits of the economic shutdown.
Added: Duh! The original purpose was to flatten the curve and keep the hospitals from being overwhelmed. The peak is happening in places like NYC and Boston and the hospitals are coping. So, mission accomplished. Phase 2 is to get out enough to continue with building herd immunity, but at a controlled rate so that hospitals remain able to cope.
I think both of these are debatable and it is obtuse to pretend they're not.
Useful and relevant links:
https://rt.live/
https://unherd.com/thepost/coming-up-epidemiologist-prof-johan-giesecke-shares-lessons-from-sweden/
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.12.20062943v1.full.pdf
http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/lockdown-socialism-will-collapse/
I case it wasn't obvious from the start--the complete abandonment, sometimes with hilariously idiotic justifications has really proven the point that it the "experts" are total BS vendors.
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