onfocus

"This, then, is the state of things: The White House does not have a plan, it does not have a framework, it does not have a philosophy, and it does not have a goal. That is not because these things are impossible. At this point, there are dozens of plans floating around and dozens of governments offering models it could choose from."

It's not going well.

"All these infection events were indoors, with people closely-spaced, with lots of talking, singing, or yelling. The main sources for infection are home, workplace, public transport, social gatherings, and restaurants. This accounts for 90% of all transmission events. In contrast, outbreaks spread from shopping appear to be responsible for a small percentage of traced infections."

Great summary of which environments pose the greatest risk as states start to open again.

"Why admit and apologize for errors? Two reasons: First, blame is a seesaw. If you blame yourself more, others blame you less; they may even tell you why it wasn’t really your fault, everybody else got it wrong too, you were misled, etc. And second, the forgiveness process starts with acknowledgment. It is vanishingly hard to forgive people who won’t admit fault."

CIDRAP—University of Minnesota illness prevention group—offers strategies for effective COVID-19 crisis communication.

"But even as the national political discourse has adopted reopening as the central debate, polls repeatedly show that Americans overwhelmingly back restrictions and do not support reopening most businesses. The consensus is especially notable in an era when nearly every poll question seems to serve as a referendum on Donald Trump, with his supporters lining up against his opponents. Here, despite Trump’s pleas for reopening, Americans are remaining united—and not heeding him. What if government reopened the country, and no one came?"

Maybe survival instinct > political affiliation?

"Through her work, she's found that those who have been through a period of isolation value the experience for what it has taught: They have a better idea of their personal values, and they're more committed to acting on them. "When people have space to sit back and think it allows them to figure out what's important to them," she said."

Lessons from others who have been isolated.

"Stated another way, the plan is to default on public problem solving, and then prevent the public from understanding the consequences of that default. To succeed this will require one of the biggest propaganda and freedom of information fights in U.S. history, the execution of which will, I think, consume the president’s re-election campaign."

Running out the clock while making people doubt the clock. We lost another month and nothing is changing to contain the virus.

Profiles of some covid-19 victims. It’s difficult to process the toll of covid-19 without taking some time to see who we’re losing. Numbers are numbers and that’s how I’m understanding covid-19 right now in charts and data. This NYT piece is a step toward a different type of understanding.

"The opposition expressed by sizable majorities of Americans reflects other cautions and concerns revealed in the survey, including continuing fears among most people that they could become infected by the coronavirus, as well as a belief that the worst of the medical crisis is not yet over."

Overwhelming majority says it’s too soon to open. Protest sentiment you see in the news is a small minority.

"It now seems less likely than ever that the United States will do what is necessary to reopen the economy without causing a second wave of deadly infections."

With no quick fix on the way and lack of political will to build testing infrastructure we’re left with two options: continued quarantine or rising death toll.

"In this case, not only is it humanitarian, it’s about strategic relationships and it’s about making sure the disease isn’t coming back into the US as we participate in global commerce that we benefit immensely from. So I think what you’re seeing in the short term, in terms of how the US is engaging, isn’t where we’ll end up. There are many voices that are going to push us to work with Europe and work with other countries and be part of the innovations that will bring this to an end."

Headline is a bit misleading, but it's always interesting to hear where Gates is at with this. I appreciate his optimism.

"They say they’re not surprised, however, that a slide occurred in a week that saw the first highly publicized challenges to such orders by protesters and President Trump, who tweeted his support to “liberate” states from shutdowns."

It’s a challenge.

"In its first fully functional 10-day period, they milled a ton of wheat; under normal circumstances, that would've been a year's worth. As a result, it has already been able to deliver 200 three-pound bags of flour to local stores and bakeries."

Helpful history.