In a life of government directed quarantine, we’re mostly helpless to do anything but our own protective isolation. Given the option of civil penalty and the transparent factors that lead to widespread social animosity; people screaming at the stupidity of covert gatherings, why buck against that? We’re also helpless to speak into the economy. It’s many magnitudes above our paygrade. The factors are so complex that the Harvard trained masters of the universe that ultimately crunch those numbers are themselves a rarified breed among their peers. For us, selling a tomato off the front porch would be enterprising. Holding up your family and loved ones? That we can do. Hold and be held up on any given day; and we have it still so much easier than Anne Frank. The medical and actuarial realities of a pandemic are, like the partitions and holds of the Titanic, a mathematical certainty, just with more variables to come to that conclusion. Viral strength, population, density, travel, social interactions, transmission factors, medical complications, a certain number of deaths are guaranteed, money in the bank.
The end of the matter is as important as the beginning. While everyone goes through the various stages of shock and adjustment and critiques the first and missed steps, it’s important to remember that leaders will be judged more on the final outcome rather than the beginning. In the beginning, many will judge based on what happened to others, foreigners, not our close neighbors. In the end, we’ll think more about judging ourselves. Did I do everything I could do to assure the safety of those around me and for myself. Millions of people are an abstraction, I, my wife and family are not. We’ll worry less about power and money because those are not currency in the place we’ll go early if there’s a misstep.
As each day goes on, I and maybe you may find yourself getting quieter rather than louder. There will be time to yell again, but we’re not there yet.