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The Race Is On
Why our immediate reaction to fear is unsustainable
Loathe though I am to contribute to the seemingly endless deluge of “what coronavirus means for the future of home macramé” and similar articles, I reluctantly feel that it may be worth while to add one forward-looking thought experiment to the vast field of electronic detritus simply because we’ve entered a paradigm from which there is currently no obvious exit.
It’s all very well for panicking politicians to pander to hysterical voters by imposing universal lock-downs and telling us all to “shelter in place” in order to “smooth the curve” of projected hospital admissions and thereby incur economic damage that is literally beyond the imagination of most people to grasp. But… where’s the exit strategy?
Zero new cases? Or merely a decline in the average number of new cases? Zero new deaths, even as low-level infection rumbles inexorably on?
The fact is, no one has a clue, least of all flapping and flailing politicians desperate not to lose popularity during a time of crisis. As is always the case, expert advice is filtered through the politician’s desperate need for adequate polling numbers and any advice deemed unpopular will be rejected no matter how helpful or sensible it may be.
Today, after being whipped into a frenzy of terror by sensationalist mass media…
