5 ms·

I was getting the impression that pretty much any government decision around COVID-19 was politically driven, not just AZ. Actually that does not even sound ve

I was getting the impression that pretty much any government decision around COVID-19 was politically driven, not just AZ. Actually that does not even sound very surprising.

hef19898 6y ago
Yeah, sounds about right. Having elections only seems to make these things worse.
- FredPret 6y ago
  I’ll tell you one thing that’s even worse than elections - no elections
  - hef19898 6y ago
    Absolutely! But having elections in 2021 makes every Covid-related decision by definition political. And that doesn't help. I should have made clear that the problem with elections is the timing, not elections in general. Governments should be focused on getting the population vaccinated as fast as possible now, and not worry about their / (re-)election chances.
    - throwawayboise 6y ago
      As soon as you justify canceling elections for one crisis, you can cancel them for any crisis. You'll manufacture a crisis if necessary.
      - hef19898 6y ago
        I never said we should cancel elections, quite the opposite. I just certain problems with conflicting incentives in the period before an election. Like weighing decision not just based on data and facts, but on public perception, media coverage and the impact on election chances. Covid had a shitty timing with that.
    - dragonwriter 6y ago
      > But having elections in 2021 makes every Covid-related decision by definition political Every COVID-related (or other) decision by or about government is political, by definition, independent of election timing. Election timing may effect the degree to which the people of a democratic state have effectively direct input on an issue whose existence and political salience would not be regularly forseeable, but that’s a very different issue than whether decisions about that issue are “political”.
      - splithalf 6y ago
        People often mean “partisan” when they say political. The parties of course control our definition of politics but that’s done with the consensus of party line voters, unfortunately the overwhelming majority of our electorate.
throwawayboise 6y ago
This much was clear in January 2020.

I was getting the impression that pretty much any government decision around COVID-19 was politically driven, not just AZ. Actually that does not even sound very surprising.

hef19898 6y ago

Yeah, sounds about right. Having elections only seems to make these things worse.

FredPret 6y ago
I’ll tell you one thing that’s even worse than elections - no elections
- hef19898 6y ago
  Absolutely! But having elections in 2021 makes every Covid-related decision by definition political. And that doesn't help. I should have made clear that the problem with elections is the timing, not elections in general. Governments should be focused on getting the population vaccinated as fast as possible now, and not worry about their / (re-)election chances.
  - throwawayboise 6y ago
    As soon as you justify canceling elections for one crisis, you can cancel them for any crisis. You'll manufacture a crisis if necessary.
    - hef19898 6y ago
      I never said we should cancel elections, quite the opposite. I just certain problems with conflicting incentives in the period before an election. Like weighing decision not just based on data and facts, but on public perception, media coverage and the impact on election chances. Covid had a shitty timing with that.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > But having elections in 2021 makes every Covid-related decision by definition political Every COVID-related (or other) decision by or about government is political, by definition, independent of election timing. Election timing may effect the degree to which the people of a democratic state have effectively direct input on an issue whose existence and political salience would not be regularly forseeable, but that’s a very different issue than whether decisions about that issue are “political”.
    - splithalf 6y ago
      People often mean “partisan” when they say political. The parties of course control our definition of politics but that’s done with the consensus of party line voters, unfortunately the overwhelming majority of our electorate.

throwawayboise 6y ago

This much was clear in January 2020.