4 ms·

I listened to that TAL recently and how they were treated was outrageous. But NPR reveals some bias in a couple of instances. For example, they describe how th

by mhb 6y ago

I listened to that TAL recently and how they were treated was outrageous. But NPR reveals some bias in a couple of instances. For example, they describe how the health officials had to rescind the order prohibiting people from being on the beach because it was impossible to enforce. An unasked question is whether an order to close beaches might have engendered skepticism of public health officials' judgement.

js2 6y ago
It's okay to be skeptical. I think we look at how officieals closed the beaches, know now that outdoor spread is rare, and say that it was an obvious misjudgment. But this ignores the practical reality of what happens when the beaches are open, which is this sort of thing: > “We don’t want people from higher-impact counties who maybe haven’t done as good a job as Santa Cruz has to come in and spread that virus,” Hart said. “In ordinary times, we love people coming in, right? Our economy is driven on tourism and agriculture. We want people here during normal times. This is not a normal time. So we don’t want those folks here from Sacramento or other areas,” Hart said. > The law breakers have been all ages, but a few whom deputies caught were teens who gathered in a car near the beach and passed around a bong, Hart said. https://santacruzlocal.org/2020/04/09/authorities-close-santa-cruz-county-beaches-parks-surf-spots/ https://santacruzlocal.org/2020/04/09/authorities-close-sant... Maybe the officials should have left the beaches open and tried a message like "it's okay for Santa Cruz locals to go to the beach, but this thing spreads through the air in enclosed spaces, so please everyone take your own cars or drive with the windows open, and we don't want people from outside communities coming here and spreading the virus." I believe health officials were generally operating in good faith. That doesn't mean they were always correct. I'd like to ask what they were thinking when they closed the beaches, but I don't think it was a simple calculation.
- throwaway894345 6y ago
  I think the calculation was wrong. It's not a question of whether being outdoors was safe or not, it's about whether or not it's safer than gathering indoors. Instead, they naively thought that closing outdoor gathering spaces would leave people with no option besides privately quarantining rather than--predictably--gathering indoors away from regulators. And while we didn't know precisely how much safer it was to be outdoors than indoors, we certainly knew that it was quite a lot safer.
- mixmastamyk 6y ago
  Anyone who paid attention in high school biology knew that the beach is close to the safest place you could be during a respiratory pandemic. The literature on fresh air and sunshine improving tuberculosis outcomes is a century old.

by mhb 6y ago

js2 6y ago

It's okay to be skeptical. I think we look at how officieals closed the beaches, know now that outdoor spread is rare, and say that it was an obvious misjudgment. But this ignores the practical reality of what happens when the beaches are open, which is this sort of thing: > “We don’t want people from higher-impact counties who maybe haven’t done as good a job as Santa Cruz has to come in and spread that virus,” Hart said. “In ordinary times, we love people coming in, right? Our economy is driven on tourism and agriculture. We want people here during normal times. This is not a normal time. So we don’t want those folks here from Sacramento or other areas,” Hart said. > The law breakers have been all ages, but a few whom deputies caught were teens who gathered in a car near the beach and passed around a bong, Hart said. https://santacruzlocal.org/2020/04/09/authorities-close-santa-cruz-county-beaches-parks-surf-spots/ https://santacruzlocal.org/2020/04/09/authorities-close-sant... Maybe the officials should have left the beaches open and tried a message like "it's okay for Santa Cruz locals to go to the beach, but this thing spreads through the air in enclosed spaces, so please everyone take your own cars or drive with the windows open, and we don't want people from outside communities coming here and spreading the virus." I believe health officials were generally operating in good faith. That doesn't mean they were always correct. I'd like to ask what they were thinking when they closed the beaches, but I don't think it was a simple calculation.

throwaway894345 6y ago
I think the calculation was wrong. It's not a question of whether being outdoors was safe or not, it's about whether or not it's safer than gathering indoors. Instead, they naively thought that closing outdoor gathering spaces would leave people with no option besides privately quarantining rather than--predictably--gathering indoors away from regulators. And while we didn't know precisely how much safer it was to be outdoors than indoors, we certainly knew that it was quite a lot safer.
mixmastamyk 6y ago
Anyone who paid attention in high school biology knew that the beach is close to the safest place you could be during a respiratory pandemic. The literature on fresh air and sunshine improving tuberculosis outcomes is a century old.