When asked when the mitigating procedures should be lifted, Dr Fauci said "when we have no new cases or deaths". That is why we don't let experts or specialists in narrow fields make policy. By that standard we will be in a depression that will last years.
Thousands of deaths have a cost. I recognize that it is in more than just dollars. And clearly current mitigation policies have a cost. They, in turn, are not just in dollars. The public health folks live in a different world than the our leaders and most Americans. The very oath the physicians swear, and all other medical pros aspire to, is to " do no harm". God Bless them. But that is in a medical context and a human patient. So you get, in a policy perspective, useless comments like Dr Fauci's. He could say little else. But it is not a reality. The cost is too high to the rest of the country.
We may see one day we were overly influanced by data and experts analysis in just one field. And it is likely because the media does nothing but push the bad news and worse case scenario. Anyone who would ask the wrong question or suggest something positive or highlight data not promoted by the media gets vilified.
Although some guys here are wonkish and have supplied truly useful data in proper context, that is not available to the public via our most popular media. I broke with my usual practise of not watching national news to follow the pandemic. Just this weekend I saw hours of coverage and did not see any mention of actual rates of death, rates of cases per 100,000, percent recovered, etc. All you see are raw numbers with no useful context. Referencing our number of cases and deaths to Italy is utterly useless, but sufficiently scares people. I read a big article about Sweden's mitigation policies. It was critical, but while it noted numbers of Swedish deaths and cases, not rates, it did not compare them to their neighbors or other countries of similar size.
The media is trying to scare the hell out of people while providing good news stories about neighbors singing for hospital workers. NYC is not Des Moines and New Orleans is not Fargo. Hell, Queens in not Manhattan.
Sick is not dead. But that is not the media narrative. Sick does not even guarantee a trip to the hospital. The fact is, the likely scenario, not worse case, is that you are not even going to get sick. And if you do, you will recover without a night in the hospital. I have not heard that on the news yet.
