I am not sure how you read that post and came away with the idea this is what I was saying. I explicitly stated that I didn’t believe “life was going on as usual”. My argument was that “social distancing” is in fact going on (leading to the decreased number of cases/mortality as predicted in earlier models). Others later posted that they were still shopping and carrying on life as usual go to cookouts, gatherings, etc. The implied argument against my previous post was that people are not socially distancing and were carrying on with their lives against the current recommendations for doing so. Therefore, social distancing would not account for the decrease in cases/mortality as predicted in the earlier models for the disease. Although I stated that this was an argument that could be made, I refuted this position based on what I have seen and experienced (I cannot account, however, for the experience of certain Texans however).
If you want to take that quote blatantly out of the context of what I was saying and say that it is unreasonable, you would in fact be agreeing with my actual position.
I personally don’t know anyone who does or would even understand how such a business model would work. I am betting that the individuals who go to such stores and buy things in these times are “mostly” practicing the guidelines, and social distancing is occurring. My argument is that social practices are changing, please see above. I left the first part of your quote in place because I am slightly amused and embarrassed from the unoriginality of your quote, stolen from a movie (full metal jacket) that was stolen from another movie (stand by me) that was used as a routine insult popular when I was 12. (I might watch too many movies)
I was going to group this in with my first reply (yes, misquoted and taken out of context, that quote statement is lunacy,) please refer to what was said above. You did at least attempt an honest question in the second half of your post. You could make an argument regarding the effectiveness of “social distancing”. I would argue that limited mass gatherings is effective at controlling an easily communicable disease. I am not sure if you want to argue against this point. (note: effectiveness of limiting the spread of covid vs. the effects on the economy is a separate yet valid argument in this context).
Interestingly, areas in states without stay-at-home orders are now seeing spikes in covid cases.
Heartland hotspots: A sudden rise in coronavirus cases is hitting rural states without stay-at-home orders - CNNPolitics
I know this is CNN and “fake news”, but if Mark can post links to articles that support his claims that also post links to articles claiming “rainbow doritoes” are a gateway snack for homosexuality…..dammit, I’m posting it! (yes this happened, please see earlier posts in this thread)
Regarding the supermarket example, I would argue the extent of that depends on the severity of the outbreak traced back to it. If multiple people have tested positive and are traced back to that same supermarket then that may need to happen. The public should be informed that if they visited said supermarket in whatever time frame they should also probably be tested. This is virtually the same reasoning behind food recalls (I remember I recent concern regarding an e.coli infection related to romaine lettuce)
I am addressing this separately. The governments that do the best have one thing in common, they all did aggressive testing, so yes, there needs to be some organization at the federal level. This is a national issue that requires coordination. The federal government does not need to be in charge of developing and producing all covid antibody testing, but they should impose some standards for “validation” to ensure the test is measuring what it is supposed to. I may not have been clear in my previous post, but what happened was the validation standards were loosened and the market was flooded with shitty testing, making the problem even worse. You can’t fix a problem with shitty data.
Even if we increased the supply, distribution still is a significant problem. Some areas have the equipment, whereas other areas do not. Coordination in paramount here. Also, testing is the much bigger concern at this point, and the US falls below most every other country on this.
Robin UK, don’t worry, I didn’t forget about you. You are your own kind of special not worth quoting. I have in fact received several cards from my mother stating my greatness as a son over the years. I even used to get birthday cards from my great grandmother prior to her noncovid-related passing many years ago with a crisp $1 bill inside. I feel the need to state any endorsements that have received over the years as they may have tainted my world views.