The Chinese are certainly cutthroat businessmen, they've certainly stolen intellectual property, their labor rates are incredibly low, however, this is nothing new and it really hasn't changed under the Trump administration. More importantly, they own a great deal of our debt. and that hasn't changed under the Trump administration either.
We'd be far better of in negotiating with them then starting a war, cold or hot, against them. Clearly Covid-19 began in China, had they been more open about it earlier we may have handled it better, but had we kept the pandemic team together we'd have been far better equipped to handle it.
Other places get trial turnaround in minutes to hours, our testing is often taking over a week. Knowing you were negative a week ago is meaningless today, and if you were positive no telling how many you've spread it to. I don't believe it's the Chinese fault that our testing is so slow. Perhaps many reagents, etc are coming from China, but I cannot believe we don't have the capability of making them here. The President hasn't used the tools he has available to get it done, not even sufficient masks or other PPE's after his call to reopen the country. Many said it was too early, they were the scientist,s, but the politicians especially in Red States dismissed the scientists and reopened, now they're largely shutting down.
It's time to slam the door on Covid-19, but we're not doing it, we're fighting about kids going back to school, we're fighting over what stores, restaurants, bars, gyms, etc. can stay open. Each thing we close costs peoples jobs, but each thing we keep open costs peoples lives. Had we been serious from the beginning, by now we could be much more open today as we'd have few infected, instead we have millions. We need to bring the curve down as they did in much of the rest of the world, had we done that, much could be open today.
I like sports, it's cute to see all the cutouts at Dodger games, but I cannot understand why something like 10% of the fans can't be in attendance, but they must stay in assigned seats all over the stadium. I suspect to enforce it a heavy fine would need to be applied to those moving into better seats. I believe the same will be true of football, basketball, etc, and that's only on the pro side, most high school and college games are simply being cancelled.
I believe from the beginning there were things that could have safely been permitted, like golf, surfing, etc, but where distancing had to be maintained, and all venues were outdoors. Gym equipment moved outdoors can be reasonably safe if sanitized between uses, naturally with distancing, masks, etc. The key to not infecting people is no indoor meetings, even with spacing indoors the disease is spread. As far as I'm concerned, I feel closer to G-d up in the mountains than in the most beautiful churches or temples. I believe there are places that congregations could meet outdoors with spacing and a lot of fresh air that would be safe, it might not work once there's bad weather, but much of the time it could work now. My point is that there are things that can be done reasonably safely if we think them through. You don't need a treadmill in a gym to walk, or a stationary bike to ride, neither are unsafe if done outdoors with distancing and masks.
Gary
