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I don't think it's viable to defend institutions by saying that things are only obvious in hindsight when other countries did manage to implement sensible polic
by the8472 5y ago
I don't think it's viable to defend institutions by saying that things are only obvious in hindsight when other countries did manage to implement sensible policies from the start.
For example Taiwan didn't pretend masks or travel bans are ineffective.
Reminder that this is what the official narrative looked like in feburary-march 2020:
https://twitter.com/UNGeneva/status/1244661916535930886 https://twitter.com/UNGeneva/status/1244661916535930886
https://twitter.com/who/status/1243972193169616898 https://twitter.com/who/status/1243972193169616898
https://i.imgur.com/lGXf03w.jpg https://i.imgur.com/lGXf03w.jpg
Sure, public institutions can be wrong and should be allowed to course-correct, but some of this wasn't due to uncertainty but deception, perhaps well-intentioned but still a political decision and not a communication of facts. And once this comes to light (as it did) people will remember it and it'll undermine the credibility of their future decisions.
- makomk 5y agoIt wasn't just the CDC though - the entire US and to some extent global media, medical and politicial establishments got behind the idea that travel bans were ineffective and counter-productive, the New York Times included. In fact, it's amazing how much US media coverage of why Taiwan was such a success either downplayed or completely omitted to mention their travel restrictions especially early on.
- foolinaround 5y agoAn important part of this calculation was responding to what Trump did or did not do on a given subject... When this extraneous considerations like this are considered, decision will be below-par
- dnautics 5y agoI have no lovefor trump, but Did that really matter in the end? Quantitatively speaking, the EU is about as bad, per capita, as the US, in terms of mortality.