> ...nobody could be bothered to develop a nationwide program to test people for infection and trace their contacts if they were positive, or to adequately support a pause of economic activity...
As for nationwide program to test people, of course nothing was built yet; it's a novel virus and therefore novel tests are needed. If a government had built out contact tracing pre-covid, they would be (rightly) criticized for taking steps in an authoritarian direction. Apple and Google have stepped in and built contact tracing, so to say this hasn't been developed is also factually inaccurate. Finally the comment about the ability to "adequately support a pause of economic activity" is kind of silly. To pause economic activity is to pause everyone's lives. What does it mean to adequately support people when they're no longer allowed to do the things they enjoy?
It was a breath of fresh air to read an article that admitted that this is a difficult trade off, not some kind of easy decision that's being ruined by the other guy. It was disappointing that it was concluded with a similar tone.