You shouldn't have needed hindsight to see how this was going to go. Politicians and the media focused on the worst possible outcomes, in the worst possible places, and beat the drum that this was how it was going to be in all corners of the US. This caused a panic. The panic caused the public to demand their politicians "do something". The politicians "did something", even when that something had absolutely no local reason for doing so because that justification was based on a city on the other side of the country with completely different demographics.

But hey, people felt safe.

This is no different than the emotional, panic based response by people during 9/11 that resulted in the wonderful bill that is the Patriot Act.

People get scared and demand the government "do something". And it does. And it's never worth the cost. Ever. This is no different.

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Posted by WDE24

Member since Oct 2010

54187 posts

Posted on 5/12/20 at 10:21 am to Centinel

quote:
even when that something had absolutely no local reason for doing so

The biggest problem that the officials face is that once they have a local reason to do something, it is too late to do anything that is likely to be effective.

That's a large part of the reason the focus on the worst hit areas prompted near universal response.

Now that we have more information and that info is growing, officials should be able to make more strategic and geographically targeted decisions (though many probably won't).

This post was edited on 5/12/20 at 10:24 am

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Posted by The Spleen

Member since Dec 2010

38865 posts

Posted on 5/12/20 at 10:23 am to Centinel

quote:
You shouldn't have needed hindsight to see how this was going to go. Politicians and the media focused on the worst possible outcomes, in the worst possible places, and beat the drum that this was how it was going to be in all corners of the US. This caused a panic. The panic caused the public to demand their politicians "do something". The politicians "did something", even when that something had absolutely no local reason for doing so because that justification was based on a city on the other side of the country with completely different demographics.

This a is a little revisionist history. People were taking precautions in many areas well before any significant local or state governmental action was taken. Widespread work from home was starting in Birmingham in early March, and we were behind several other areas in that regard.

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