President Donald Trump has said the US will make a decision at the end of a 15-day period on 'which way we want to go' to fight coronavirus, implying that the country could re-open - just hours after New York City went into lockdown at 8pm on Sunday.
'We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself,' he said on Twitter.
Obviously we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself and equally obviously that is the core political problem. Not a technical problem but primarily a political one. When will we know? Again Trump is probably right - about 15 days could clarify this issue.
Unfortunately it would be no great surprise if many people, including many media people, do not care if the cure turns out to be worse than the problem itself. The cure is their brand of politics and that's the nature of modern political life.
2 comments:
They like to have one big existential threat. That makes for a nice thrilling background feeling, and simplifies the work of the media because they only have to Google one topic in order to become instant experts. And you can always count on the cure involving more state control and monitoring of the population, and lots of new government positions where Oxbridge generalists can hold court.
Speaking of which, where's Dominic Cummings these days? His incredible intelligence was apparently able to penetrate the secrets of trade deals and voting behaviour, but virology and epidemiology are evidently not his thing. Have they even asked him, I wonder?
Sam - I agree and I've no idea where Dominic Cummings has gone. A low profile may be deliberate to avoid the media painting coronavirus policy as being dictated by a scruffy back room bogey man.
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