[FRIAM] narcissism

[Marcus Daniels]

Glen writes:

< [†] I think we've almost lost the chance to act on these "reopen protests". We could have come out ahead of the morons and argued for reopening in a *competent* way, emphasizing the 3 milestones: curve downturn, enough testing, contact tracing. Each of these could have been customized for context (e.g. in places like here in Olympia, where our hospitals are nowhere near overwhelmed, our curve's been headed down for awhile, etc.). But we've insisted on tight lockdowns *regardless* of context. Even if tight lockdowns are, in an ideal world, the right thing to do, we *could* have gotten out ahead of the morons and their protests. >

If the death rates in the less populated parts of the country exceeded metropolitan areas, that might start to erode support.   I think it would have to get to the point that death outcomes were friends and family for everyone in those areas.  I don't think that is a plausible outcome.  I agree it is probably better to open the less densely-populated states, even if the protocol is clumsy.

Marcus