From Pine View Farm

Unmasked Marauders 0

The editorial board of the Hartford Courant looks ahead at the “reopening” of Connecticut (and, by extension, other states) and has concerns (emphasis added). A nugget:

Around the globe, two key takeaways have emerged from those successfully suppressing the virus — both of which demand seeing past your own personal wants.

First, politicians have turned over communication and key decision making to scientists and public health experts, encouraging community responsibility and backing sweeping rules and regulations that were universally applied. That worked in South Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand. It also worked in Washington state, where the governor took a backseat to doctors and epidemiologists.

Second, effective leaders have learned from past failures in fighting pandemics and used those lessons to adjust their approach. A key lesson from a 2007 public health report “Lessons Learned from the 1918–1919 Influenza Pandemic in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota,” identified a lack of clarity and coordination among local, state and federal authorities as a critical problem.

Both those lessons are being ignored by too many, and we are now at serious risk of losing the gains of the last two months, fueled in no small part by the illusion that not wearing a mask to the grocery store is an act of political will.

Do please read the rest.

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