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I think this kind of retrospective look at these two datapoints is probably not focused on the right thing at this point. This article picks on DeBlasio / Cuom
by grej 6y ago
I think this kind of retrospective look at these two datapoints is probably not focused on the right thing at this point.
This article picks on DeBlasio / Cuomo and indirectly DeBlasio’s health commissioner heavily for encouraging continued going out to restaurants and events and riding the subway in late Feb and into mid-March. But remember in late Feb the President was still saying it was going to just magically go away. Bay Area politicians including the speaker of the house Pelosi were encouraging lots of people to come to Chinatown parades. Florida even left their beaches open all the way through mid March for spring breakers to come. While those events have almost certainly led to additional cases and deaths, other areas of the country seem to have largely gotten away with a less proactive and later response than Seattle.
I think we are probably going to see that the real challenge on NY is that we just don’t have another city in the US with New York’s density, air travel volume, and high utilization of public transit. Comparing NY to Seattle just because they are both in the US is probably not as relevant. Given what we know now about the propensity of high volume super spreader events to drive the bulk of the R0, NY can probably only really fairly be compared to London and Paris in the Western world, at least.
- ianlevesque 6y ago> other areas of the country seem to have largely gotten away with a less proactive and later response Seattle. This assessment is really premature.
- grej 6y agoOf course you are correct, but the article is also a “so far” assessment. We’re right now in the middle of the response. Every assessment, right now, is at a point in time. And so, to a degree, premature. We can only look at the information we have currently.
- NotSammyHagar 6y agoNo, I'm sorry, you're missing the point of the article. One of those places had politicians using more economic and political considerations leading to their choices. Seattle has those forces but generally acceded to the guidance of scientists.
- steve76 6y agoA serious approach to science starts with study, likely decades. If politicians are serious about science, why did they study law or business and not science? Provoking people with the label "hostile to science" helps no one, especially during a crisis where 2 million people still could die horribly. Political and economic forces start wars which easily kill millions. And concerning "hostile to science", is science: > "I have the cure!" "Bah! Science!!! Get it away from me!" or > "Science says you are to die today. First, give all your money to me, a rich guy."
- ddebernardy 6y ago> Bay Area politicians including the speaker of the house Pelosi were encouraging lots of people to come to Chinatown parades. That seems like a rather murky assertion... https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pelosi-tweet-chinatown-tourism/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pelosi-tweet-chinatown-tou...
- empath75 6y agoIt’s not very murky. She encouraged people to go to Chinatown. She just didn’t put it on her twitter feed.
- felixgallo 6y agohttps://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/23/trump-versus-pelosi-what-happened-chinatown/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/23/trump-ver...