Gary here. Thanks for stopping by!
It’s the weekend, after another week of social distancing here in northern California. We still don’t know when it might be safe to allow this process to end.
Several states have just begun experiments to ease restrictions and to open their economies for business. This easing is done in the face of warnings by nearly every medical scientist that relaxing now will lead to unnecessary deaths, and that a return to some new normal needs to be preceded by other steps—much more extensive testing and contact tracking.
As some politicians stand at their microphones, cell phones in their pocket, I’d like to be the reporter asking the questions: What part of science don’t you believe in and why the distinction? Do you have any concept of the mathematics of exponential? How many lives are you willing to bet on pet theories, not backed by science or anything beyond a gut hunch?
In California, we will continue with a cautious approach. Let others, sadly, rush forward. We’ll watch, feeling badly for them.
And now, let’s all take a deep breath, and try to relax. Here are a few moments to spend with the bees.
Be well, and stay calm.
We all have many journeys. Gary’s began in a small Midwest town, where he could play unfettered in the woods, finding an early love for nature and learning self-reliance. The space program and the night skies hooked him on astronomy. After finishing college, the wide world beckoned, and his fascination with science drew him to California to participate in the booming tech industry. Now he still stares upward, wondering what it all is about.
Gary
I like you blog. You asked very good questions. However, I doubt you would get an answer to any of them. I frequently watch political talk shows such as Meet the Press. Today Dr. Brix was asked some tough ones. She just ignored the question and gave a political answer that her boss would find acceptable
Yes, I agree, unfortunately. The politicians have worried more about their jobs, and their ratings to whatever group is their base, than to the facts of science. But if we wish to differentiate this pandemic from the sad history of ones that preceded it, we need our secret weapon – science!
We so need to get the constant partisan games out of the operation of our government. The two parties generate big bucks, while the country gets nothing but drama and debt!
Patricia, you’re right that there’s lots of drama, and now lots of debt. I don’t see a way out of it, except to use some clear thinking, following the science, to help decide the safest way to get us back to some new normal. BTW, the evidence from the 1918 flu pandemic suggests that places that kept the virus most under control (and that had the fewest deaths per capita) also did best afterward with their economies.
It seems I’m not alone in suggesting that we stick by the science when considering how the U.S. might restart economic activity. Here is Dr. Fauci warning states that “‘You’re making a really significant risk” – https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/01/fauci-open-states-coronavirus/
Here is the take from the Atlantic, about Georgia’s risky experiment in restarting (too early) – https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/why-georgia-reopening-coronavirus-pandemic/610882/