This literally suicidal proposal could equally literally end America, in so many ways. As a measure of the general incompetence and obvious incomprehension of the pandemic threat, it’s off the scale
The reopening scenario in brief:
1. Reopen America for business in June.
2. Infections, currently at around 30,000 per day, rise to 200, 000 per day.
3. The death rate rises to 3,000 per day as opposed to roughly 1,000 per day now.
4. Many more infectious people are able to pass on the disease, at a conservative rate of about 10 possible infections per infected person. This also increases the statistical probability of getting it to almost 100% certain as the viral population increases exponentially. (Well done, morons.)
A basic number-crunching exercise, botched as usual.
Trump has never been famous for his arithmetic. 3,000 people per day dying equals about 100,000 per month, not per year or whatever time frame he thinks it is. That’s two Vietnam Wars per month, to say nothing of vast numbers of infected people needing hospitalization.
Major contagious diseases don’t simply “go away”. The virus, given so many infections, could become endemic to the US, meaning it stays as an active agent in the US, whether it’s eradicated elsewhere or not. Large numbers of replications, which is what viruses do. That means much more viral mass is around to keep up the work of killing and hospitalizing Americans.
(Note: Nobody knows whether the virus will stick around after its first onslaught, come back, or simply mutate itself into something else. The problem is that the existing population of the virus could easily explode.)
The economics – This way is too dangerous
Yes, America does need to reopen, and sooner rather than later. It’s already looking like the Depression as millions of unemployed Americans take the massive hit the virus has dealt to the economy.
The point is that reopening doesn’t have to be done in this sure-to-fail way. ANY other way of doing business, employing people, remote work, you name it, can only be thousands of times better than this option. A massive surge in infections could fail totally and destroy any chance of economic recovery for a very long time, perhaps a decade.
If the US economy goes into meltdown, it will take the world’s financial assets and even basic business through a blender. The US dollar could become worthless, doing untold damage to global trade, which is generally done in US dollars.
Total meltdown in the US? It’s possible.
Consider this jolly little comedy skit:
1. America reopens.
2. Surge in deaths and hospitalizations overwhelms workplaces and support systems.
3. Overloaded businesses bail out for good, cutting their losses.
4. Foreign businesses leave America and stop doing business due to unacceptable health and asset risks.
5. Many more unemployed, this time with no clear way out and no time scale for getting out.
6. Lack of income trashes Main Street much worse than the GFC.
7. Main Street crashes trigger corporate collapses and asset fire sales.
8. Hyperinflation caused by shortages causes massive price spikes.
9. Financial markets spin out of control, because nobody knows what the assets are worth anymore.
10. Gigantic revenue crash at all levels of Federal, State and County governments caused by points above brings employment in these sectors to a grim end.
11. Borrowing raises public and private debt to an impossible level of maintenance.
12. America is effectively bankrupt, with morgues and dole lines full of people.
13. The FOXwits in American politics run for office, telling the admiring passengers on the Titanic they know how to get the ship sailing again.
The irony is that the ONLY way you could achieve this is by this idiotic reopening scenario. Quite literally anything else, notably the highly effective and successful lockdowns in places like Australia and New Zealand, DOES work.
3,000 deaths per day? You’re beyond nuts.
Another apparently unconsidered factor in this recipe for destroying the United States is that those 3,000 people will include a lot of competent people, innocent people, people who thought they had a future, etc.
So – Who wants to die first? Say goodbye to your friends, business associates, relatives, the people who take out your garbage and clean your teeth, etc. The sheer lack of judgment and total ineptitude of this proposal isn’t just beyond belief. It’s lethal.
America is not going to get up and walk away with a mild hangover from this 360 degree all-trains wreck. It’s beyond doubt the stupidest, most utterly incompetent, delusional response possible. If this happens, the bullet is in the air, and it’s heading straight for you.
