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Comment by pacala | Hacker News Reader

The major challenge is that we either hide for an indefinite amount of time, which destroys the wealth pipes, aka the economy, or we get hit by a second pandemic wave. There are NO good options.

Cherry on top: everything is hyperpartisan, which leads to the destruction of public trust. In some alternate reality, Mr. Trump and Ms. Pelosi would hold a joint press conference and tell us the cold facts: There are NO good options. Many people are going to die, and there is nothing anyone can do to indefinitely prevent that. Let's at least hold our heads up with dignity.

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Meanwhile on the other side of the world countries are reopening with a fraction of the deaths, because their measures actually worked.

Or, we're all cooking our books too.

I mean, I am really trying hard to not be overly cynical, but I'm so thoroughly disappointed with everyone's reaction to COVID-19 - from the well-known failures of the US Federal Government, all the way to my little part of the planet and the Poland's mistreatment of healthcare (of which I've heard plenty from inside the healthcare system) and attempts to have elections this month anyway (ended up postponed at the last minute)... At this point I'm assuming all reported statistics everywhere are +/- 2 orders of magnitude, and I'll be keeping every protective measure I can until it's unambiguous that my region has dealt with the virus successfully, or until I'm forced to stop keeping those measures by fiat.

Actually, you have a choice between three things.

1. Hide for an indefinite amount of time, devastating the economy.

2. Re-open, get hit by a second wave, also devastating the economy. (Economies don't do great in the middle of an uncontrolled pandemic.)

3. Do the hard work of getting public health efforts, employment law, and testing logistics to the point where you can re-open safely.

Guess which option we're going with?

We're going with 3. Every state is focusing intense efforts on those things.

Really?

States are citing employers who are compelling sick people to come to work, or banning employees from wearing masks? Which states?

States are hiring armies of contact tracers? States are rolling out massive, free, convenient testing before reopening?

The only thing states seem to be doing is trying their best to send people back to work, regardless of whether or not their workplaces are safe, and lifting restrictions, regardless of whether or not they are ready. (Why, for instance, are the states re-opening businesses simultaneously limiting bans on large gatherings? Large gatherings are not necessary for re-opening the economy.)

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