It’s truly mind-boggling to contemplate the blind knee-jerk actions some governors and city officials employ in their widespread and indefinite wholesale shut-downs to allegedly employ social distancing concepts as a means of reducing the transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
Following expert medical community advice for minimizing social contact and interaction is certainly sensible. But this advice needs to be intelligently applied using common sense.
My concern is the mindlessly blind knee-jerk actions to wholesale shut-down of everything which we see happening in some states and municipalities. Such nonsensical edicts harm millions of people. The consequences of unemployment will be devastating and inexorably grow worse the longer it exists. Some predict that the consequences of long-term wholesale shut-downs will be more devastating and deadly than COVID-19 itself.
A good alternative would be intelligent and common-sense application of sensible means to prevent virus spreading.
A friend claims that common sense is a most uncommon thing. That appears to be a truism when applied to many government officials.
Thus far, it seems that major COVID-19 outbreaks are being reported only in enclosed indoor spaces ― that sharing indoor space is a primary infection risk.
So, given that data, I ask why are private outdoor activities of individuals (NOT crowds) being so mindlessly restricted?
Common sense argues that the risk of outdoor transmission does not justify the current extreme and long-term lockdowns of parks, walking paths, trails, golf courses, tennis courts, etc. Restricting our ability to get out in sunshine, to walk around the neighborhood or our own backyard is not only silly, it is actually counterproductive.
Activities generating close contact do need to be curtailed e.g., basketball courts should be closed as basketball is impossible to play and maintain necessary social distance. But tennis, walking outdoors, fishing, et al? Get real!
Kids contact with playground equipment that possibly has viral activity should certainly be restricted. But if proper social distancing is maintained, perhaps sanitary wiping might be sufficient in such a situation?
Yes, we truly need to understand exactly where and how COVID-19 is actually transmitted. We need to proactively take all necessary precautions.
We must acknowledge that we have a dangerous and deadly problem that requires appropriate immediate measures to resolve it. This is not a one-size-fits-all situation.
We need to set aside politics and ideology and come together as a united people to resolve this crisis and take sensible actions of moderating and smartly reducing the lockdowns and related restrictions. We must apply common sense in what we do to gradually lift the restrictions.
