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Locking California down early, and mandating social distancing and face coverings is the reason we're seeing numbers that low - it's precisely why it was done and should be viewed as a success. If we'd stayed open, we'd be having a very different conversation now. Comparing a few months worth of numbers from an outbreak of a novel virus to the annual figures for seasonal flu is wildly inaccurate. A far better comparison would be a state like New York, which has seen 22,304 deaths so far this year from Covid-19, while CDC figures show they had 4,517 deaths from influenza/pneumonia in 2017 - almost five times deadlier in a far shorter period. To put it in perspective, the death toll from Covid-19 in Brooklyn alone has almost matched the state's death toll for flu in the whole of 2017. And hysteria is hardly the word I'd use to describe our response after the death tolls we've seen in other countries like Spain, Italy and the UK, all of whom locked down far later in their outbreaks than California. We did the right thing, and it has flattened the curve significantly. Nobody is denying that the economic toll is going to be devastating - we're all hurting from Covid-19 - but opening states too early will result in far higher mortality rates and will guarantee the reintroduction of lockdowns. This virus doesn't care about your freedom or constitutional rights. It will roll over us without breaking a sweat, and downplaying it will only result in overwhelmed ERs and ICUs, far greater death tolls, and an even more badly damaged economy.
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"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep"
"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary.
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