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> But the harsh reality is that it all failed — no Western country, or state, or city was prepared This is silly. There are clear differences in response. He

> But the harsh reality is that it all failed — no Western country, or state, or city was prepared This is silly. There are clear differences in response. Here’s just one example: 21 Jan - The city department of public health activates its operations center to prepare for a potential outbreak. 28 Jan - The city activates its emergency operations center. 25 Feb - The city formally declares a state of emergency to prepare for an upcoming outbreak. 5 Mar - The city confirms its first case of COVID-19. 17 Mar - Shelter in place order implemented. This was a great timeline. And it comes from the local jurisdiction so many here love to hate: San Francisco. There are absolutely lessons we should be drawing from this pandemic. And one of them is that the political movements who want to drown government in a bathtub are putting your own lives and those of every vulnerable person you know because of that ideology. And those that want functional government aren’t. I’m all for more radical solutions too. But if you aren’t going to learn the lessons of the present you’re in a shockingly bad place to tell anyone what’s right for the future. Also, we need to tone down the white supremacy and learn some lessons from the Asian governments who did well here too. My search space for good ideas isn’t confined to “western governments” and neither should that confine anyone else’s.

harryh 6y ago
NYC and SF have roughly similar sized city budgets when measured on a per capita basis and they had _wildly_ different responses to Coronavirus. Whatever it was that causes such different responses, I don't think it was "political movements who want to drown government in a bathtub."
- djcapelis 6y ago
  First off, yes of course that isn’t the only the factor. Second off, your point doesn’t seem to be particularly relevant. The politics of NYC and SF are not at all the same. NYC is liberal by east coast standards but not much by west coast standards. NYC is much, much more captive to the political party there that wants to drown government in a bathtub and folks there regularly elect them to run parts of their government. SF does not. Straight up. We don’t do that here. The fight is between establishment liberals and radicals. The Overton window here spans from establishment liberal to radical. Our big frightening special interests out here are tech companies. In NYC the special interests are financial services vampires. Learn the lesson maybe. Yeah?
  - wbl 6y ago
    Please explain to me what influence Republicans have on Bill de Blasio that would have prevented a shutdown.
- eli_gottlieb 6y ago
  Yeah, it's fair to point out that both New York and San Francisco are thoroughly Democratic in their politics, and yet responded very differently to the crisis.
- jmeister 6y ago
  He could be referring to Trump’s disbanding of the pandemic protection team within CDC two years back
Vomzor 6y ago
The first official case was in March. The actual first case was at the beginning of January. The shelter in place order means the city failed to anticipate and acted when it was too late. Like the rest of the Western world.
- jennyyang 6y ago
  No. San Francisco was the first to act, and put pressure on the rest of the Bay Area to follow, and subsequently California. If SF didn't act first, who knows how long it would have taken for other politicians to have the "courage" to put in such draconian, but effective, measures. As far as I'm concerned, London Breed saved tens of thousands of lives in the Bay Area alone, and I hate her politics.
  - Vomzor 6y ago
    The time to act was in January. It’s good that they acted first but it was still too late.
    - djcapelis 6y ago
      They did act in January. SF’s emergency operations center was active and running. The CDC was still making it illegal for anyone to test outside some unreliable and faulty test kits. The fact that our federal government was obstructing anyone’s ability to build up a testing apparatus is very much the responsibility of the incompetent management of this crisis by the federal government.
  - mattm 6y ago
    Actually a lot of large tech companies acted earlier and had already implemented work from home orders by the time the city acted.
- djcapelis 6y ago
  > The actual first case was at the beginning of January. Receipts please. You are claiming that the timeline of SF matched other countries where deaths started much earlier and went much higher. Are you really making the claim that our hospitals were overlooking a couple hundred people drowning in their own lungs and unable to breath during the month of February? Because that would basically have to have been true if we had community spread in early January. > The shelter in place order means the city failed to anticipate and acted when it was too late. Like the rest of the Western world. Your assumption is that the death rate being substantially lower in SF and California is luck and not preparation? That stance doesn’t seem supported by the evidence.

harryh 6y ago

NYC and SF have roughly similar sized city budgets when measured on a per capita basis and they had _wildly_ different responses to Coronavirus. Whatever it was that causes such different responses, I don't think it was "political movements who want to drown government in a bathtub."

djcapelis 6y ago
First off, yes of course that isn’t the only the factor. Second off, your point doesn’t seem to be particularly relevant. The politics of NYC and SF are not at all the same. NYC is liberal by east coast standards but not much by west coast standards. NYC is much, much more captive to the political party there that wants to drown government in a bathtub and folks there regularly elect them to run parts of their government. SF does not. Straight up. We don’t do that here. The fight is between establishment liberals and radicals. The Overton window here spans from establishment liberal to radical. Our big frightening special interests out here are tech companies. In NYC the special interests are financial services vampires. Learn the lesson maybe. Yeah?
- wbl 6y ago
  Please explain to me what influence Republicans have on Bill de Blasio that would have prevented a shutdown.
eli_gottlieb 6y ago
Yeah, it's fair to point out that both New York and San Francisco are thoroughly Democratic in their politics, and yet responded very differently to the crisis.
jmeister 6y ago
He could be referring to Trump’s disbanding of the pandemic protection team within CDC two years back

Vomzor 6y ago

The first official case was in March. The actual first case was at the beginning of January. The shelter in place order means the city failed to anticipate and acted when it was too late. Like the rest of the Western world.

jennyyang 6y ago
No. San Francisco was the first to act, and put pressure on the rest of the Bay Area to follow, and subsequently California. If SF didn't act first, who knows how long it would have taken for other politicians to have the "courage" to put in such draconian, but effective, measures. As far as I'm concerned, London Breed saved tens of thousands of lives in the Bay Area alone, and I hate her politics.
- Vomzor 6y ago
  The time to act was in January. It’s good that they acted first but it was still too late.
  - djcapelis 6y ago
    They did act in January. SF’s emergency operations center was active and running. The CDC was still making it illegal for anyone to test outside some unreliable and faulty test kits. The fact that our federal government was obstructing anyone’s ability to build up a testing apparatus is very much the responsibility of the incompetent management of this crisis by the federal government.
- mattm 6y ago
  Actually a lot of large tech companies acted earlier and had already implemented work from home orders by the time the city acted.
djcapelis 6y ago
> The actual first case was at the beginning of January. Receipts please. You are claiming that the timeline of SF matched other countries where deaths started much earlier and went much higher. Are you really making the claim that our hospitals were overlooking a couple hundred people drowning in their own lungs and unable to breath during the month of February? Because that would basically have to have been true if we had community spread in early January. > The shelter in place order means the city failed to anticipate and acted when it was too late. Like the rest of the Western world. Your assumption is that the death rate being substantially lower in SF and California is luck and not preparation? That stance doesn’t seem supported by the evidence.