A couple of Republican congressmen, Ken Buck of Colorado and Andy Biggs of Arizona, who is also chair of the House Freedom Caucus, write for the Washington Examiner that it’s a damn shame about all those deaths but — jeebus, people, the economy! After pointing out that not as many people have died as the administration’s artificially inflated estimates (that they falsely attribute to Dr. Fauci) said, the congressmen declare we must all go back to work.
It is tragic that thousands of people in the country have died or may yet succumb to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. But we also must remember that millions of people have had their lives and livelihoods permanently altered because of the government response to this virus. While our government may make promises and help make things better once the hysteria subsides, there is nothing our leaders will be able to do to make everything completely right again….
… Birx also recently indicated that we should not open up the country yet because there might be a second time around for the virus. Has she considered the economic destruction she is content with wreaking on the nation? One wonders if she has thought about the emotional toll — the suicides, the increase in domestic and child abuse, drug and alcohol dependence, and a host of additional societal pathologies. Has she considered the loss of life-savings, businesses, and capital?
The headline of this, um, opinion — Is Dr. Fauci Helping or Hurting?– was already a rallying cry others on the right.
Biggs and Buck, both members of the conservative Freedom Caucus and staunch allies of President Trump, join others on the right in criticizing public health officials on the administration’s coronavirus task force. On Tuesday, Tucker Carlson, a conservative commentator on Fox News, said that Fauci “shouldn’t be making economic decisions.”
And, of course Fauci isn’t making economic decisions. He’s making scientific recommendations, which he is well qualified to make.
Along similar lines, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has announced plans to allow businesses to reopen with an executive order that would lift the coronavirus lockdown.
Abbott said Texas, which would be the world’s 11th largest economy it were an independent country, could find a balance between personal safety and economic security.
“We will focus on protecting lives while restoring livelihoods,” Abbott said on Friday at a news conference.
“We can and we must do this. We can do both, expand and restore the livelihoods that Texans want to have by helping them return to work. One thing about Texans, they enjoy working and they want to get back into the workforce. We have to come up with strategies on how we can do this safely.”
Abbott said details of the executive order would be available next week and it is expected to provide businesses with a list of guidelines on how to safely reopen.
See also How many missed? Texas is second-worst in the nation for COVID-19 testing in the Houston Chronicle.
The economy may very well be screwed for years to come. But the economy can’t be re-started at a time when shopping can prove fatal, and businesses are being forced to close because the employees are dropping dead. It won’t work, righties. We’d all like it to be otherwise. But reality is what it is. As hard as you might try to override reality with ideology — and many of us get away with doing that most of the time — sometimes reality will push down all your beliefs and demand to be recognized.
Right now is one of those times.
I read in Vox that one of the strongest predictors of social distancing behavior is attitudes toward climate change. In other words, if you think climate change is a big hoax being perpetrated by pointy-headed liberal academic science types because they’ve figured out a way to monetize it, somehow, then you’re likely not going to voluntarily engage in social distancing until you’re hooked up to a ventilator. Of course, these are the same people who think Donald Trump is accomplishing great things.
I would personally be just fine with letting all the yahoos who think social distancing is for pansies to do as they please, as long as we can wall these people off from the rest of us. But righties don’t like that, either. See ‘Take a step back.’ Beshear’s plan to quarantine Easter churchgoers draws fire from GOP.
Of course, there is no one on the planet more averse to reality than Donald Trump. If you read nothing else today (after this blog post) do read He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus in the New York Times. It provides a lot more detail than I’ve seen before as to what’s been going on in the administration while it has bungled the pandemic response.
