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One problem is, all the relevant people were on board with the long standing emergency plans for a viral pandemic - which was to protect the most vulnerable gro

by _0ffh 3y ago

One problem is, all the relevant people were on board with the long standing emergency plans for a viral pandemic - which was to protect the most vulnerable groups, while leaving everyone else alone - right up until a viral pandemic hit; then the former expert consensus suddenly went out the window, along with everyone who held on to it.

dekhn 3y ago
I mean, it was a chaotic emergency situation and public health officials were under intense pressure to make lots of different people happy at the same time, while also getting masive social media criticism and armchair quarterbacking of their opinions. It does not surprise me if we spent some amount of our time acting like chickens with our heads cut off.
- _0ffh 3y ago
  > it was a chaotic emergency situation Which is exactly what long standing emergency plans are for, which can be thoroughly thought through by cooler heads, free of time pressure and chaotic circumstances. Having these plans and then not abiding by them (for no good reason) is an alarming sign of the incompetence, cowardice and opportunism affecting the highest levels of our institutions.
  - dekhn 3y ago
    Wel, I don't agree that it was a sign of incompetence, cowardice, and opportunism. Nor do I think that emergency plans should always be executed blindly, especially if underlying data changes. That seems like an overly pessimistic analysis of a truly complex situation where a huge number of public health officials sacrificed a great deal to help us. Personally I'm thankful to the establishment and don't really think they could have done much better, considering the circumstances.
    - mikecoles 3y ago
      The 'pessimism' you see is actually others rationally observing the pandemic being blown out of proportion to harvest fear. "Health officials" sacrificed nothing. They sought to inflate their ego and boost their self-importance.
- Animats 3y ago
  Yes. "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." - Patton. Do not forget that in the early stages of the epidemic, there were refrigerator vans filled with dead bodies in body bags.

by _0ffh 3y ago

dekhn 3y ago

I mean, it was a chaotic emergency situation and public health officials were under intense pressure to make lots of different people happy at the same time, while also getting masive social media criticism and armchair quarterbacking of their opinions. It does not surprise me if we spent some amount of our time acting like chickens with our heads cut off.

_0ffh 3y ago
> it was a chaotic emergency situation Which is exactly what long standing emergency plans are for, which can be thoroughly thought through by cooler heads, free of time pressure and chaotic circumstances. Having these plans and then not abiding by them (for no good reason) is an alarming sign of the incompetence, cowardice and opportunism affecting the highest levels of our institutions.
- dekhn 3y ago
  Wel, I don't agree that it was a sign of incompetence, cowardice, and opportunism. Nor do I think that emergency plans should always be executed blindly, especially if underlying data changes. That seems like an overly pessimistic analysis of a truly complex situation where a huge number of public health officials sacrificed a great deal to help us. Personally I'm thankful to the establishment and don't really think they could have done much better, considering the circumstances.
  - mikecoles 3y ago
    The 'pessimism' you see is actually others rationally observing the pandemic being blown out of proportion to harvest fear. "Health officials" sacrificed nothing. They sought to inflate their ego and boost their self-importance.
Animats 3y ago
Yes. "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." - Patton. Do not forget that in the early stages of the epidemic, there were refrigerator vans filled with dead bodies in body bags.