I was speaking of the dismal science having a better handle on human behavior. The cause of the 2008 crash had little to do with mass human behavior. And I disagree that economic behavior during the pandemic defied predictions. It was just that economic considerations were not ever in play. Public Heath trumped all else and the economic costs never made the front page.
And so? That is what virtually every virus does. The common cold does so, as does the flu. How could mutations come as a surprise to the public heath establishment? I have been on the record form the beginning that the power players deserve a break for how the pandemic was handled very early on. Not a lot was known about it. BUT, mutations could be expected. Pandemic killing vaccinations was unlikely. The CDC knew that. That is why absolute statements and over confidence was exactly what the CDC should not have done. It cost them a lot of credibility if it wasn't already week. Their record over the past 10-15 years was wrong more than right. That many of their errors were essentially "false positives" is a relief, but it doesn't change that they got it wrong.
Much to be critical of early handling by the last Administration. We would likely agree on much of it, such as Presidential tweets on the subject. And I can give them a break on some mis-steps as mentioned above. BUT, have to disagree they put their heads in the sand. Approving the appropriation of a shit ton of money to include various relief plans, travel bans to Asia, Operation Warp Speed, shutting down the country, mobilizing the National Guard and sending military help to include hospital ships was not head in the sand responses. You can argue the relative effectiveness of anything they did, but you cannot say they put their heads in the sand and did nothing.
We agree, but probably for different reasons. Off the top of my head, can not think of much the current administration has done but try and use the pandemic as an excuse to pass costly unrelated legislation. There are the free Covid tests being mailed to certain Americans, if they can find any to send out. Don't get me wrong. With he exception of using the pandemic to push Build Back, I am OK with the fact they have done little more than was in place. I'll even give them a pass on the availability of tests they are pushing so hard. But to say on the other side of the gulf that is 12 months is a better more active response than the last Administration is a stretch.
I agree. That was the narrative pushed by some, but it didn't mesh with the actual reality on the ground. The messaging was long serious, but just not doomsday. From the Covid Task Force regular meetings and press conferences where people were encouraged to stay indoors, socially distance, wear masks to shutting down travel from China in the face of others calling such a move "xenophobic" to signing legislation providing for much-needed economic relief to out-of-work Americans to enabling and establishing Operation Warp Speed to quickly produce a vaccine to mobilizing the DoD to help fight this pandemic in the hardest hit areas to taking steps to shut down the country to help mitigate the spread of the disease, I find it hard to say that the administration put their heads in the sand.
Note, on messaging generally, we heard different things initially from everyone based on what was initially known about the virus. Heck, Fauci himself earlier on was discounting some of the models of COVID deaths based on the steps that people were taking with the shut downs, social distancing, etc. No where did I hear from the administration that COVID was not a serious issue or that people shouldn't take it seriously. Now, what I did hear was that we will get to the end of this and that the pandemic won't be victorious against us (in sane times, people would call that optimism . . . I remember the media lambasting the administration when DJT's approval ratings were briefly increasing due to his press conferences smh), but that didn't take away from the seriousness of the overall messaging surrounding COVID.
But we also knew then and know now that COVID overwhelmingly affects some more than others, to include folks with comorbidities.
I also note that there are core traditional Democrat constituencies that aren't vaccinated today at high levels (for instance, it's 50% in the black community by non-conservative estimates . . . in my family alone, my brother and I are the only two of 8 people who are vaccinated, and he only got the vaccine so he could go the movies in NYC when the implemented the vaccine passport lol). That's not something you can blame on DJT or anyone in his administration, but I argue comes more from historical hesitancy among blacks concerning these things. Similarly, and an argument I also point out when talking about the issue of gun rights and the influence of orgs like the NRA--DJT is not his supporters. He is a conduit to carry the voice for his supporters, but his supporters have views that are independent of his and him taking a stand on certain issues isn't going to budge them. I note that Trump today has advocated for the vaccine (and has long advocated for it), but that isn't stopping many very conservative areas from also refusing to vaccinate at higher numbers; and, for crying aloud, the vaccine program was started under the administration of DJT.
