Links: COVID-19, nuanced discussions of difficult topics

[sonia]

This is a clear (therefore enraging) discussion of racism, class, and US response to COVID-19. Covid-19’s Race and Class Warfare by Charles M. Blow. "This crisis is exposing the savagery of American democracy."

For some, a reopened economy and recreational landscape will mean the option to run a business, return to work, go to the park or beach, or have a night on the town at a nice restaurant or swanky bar. But for many on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, it will only force them back into compulsory exposure to more people, often in occupations that make it hard to protect oneself and that pay little for the risk.

When Will It Be Safe to End Coronavirus Lockdowns? by Isaac Chotiner. I don't think they should use a header photo of a "reopen" protester. See above blockquote. The article itself has an informed discussion of the questions around reopening. Not a lot of answers, unfortunately.

Oh look, this makes sense! Don't reopen until the reproductive number is well below 1 and cases are definitely decreasing. Too bad we're not doing that...

So you’d want to have that restored to a position of strength where your hospitals and your health-care systems are unlocked. Further, if you’ve driven it down so that R is well below one, you are in a place where you have wiggle room, where, if it rises from 0.4 to 0.8, you’re still good because it’s less than one; it’s still on a downward trajectory.

From the conclusion:

So I think we are stuck in this place right now where we’re bumbling along—that, unless we actually, proactively go after a pattern that appears to have worked in other places, we are stuck. It would be much more optimal if we would invest in the contact tracing and the testing, which some states are trying to do, and use that to proactively throttle the disease and then open the economy.