what worked and what didn't during Covid to be had, but I'm not sure Scott Atlas is the guy to lead it - too much skin in the game.

I'd like to see where some of his numbers came from, for one (but I'm not going to do my own research). Some strange links in there - unemployment and death rates, etc. He also seems to focus on "lockdowns" and makes little mention of social distancing, vaccines, masking, etc. Living in Virginia, I never felt "locked down". The majority of consumer-facing establishments didn't shut down, and I adapted my behavior in the early days. Not that hard. And if there has been an erosion in trust of public health institutions, I'm not sure the pandemic guidance is the root cause - the people working for them were demonized endlessly in certain media outlets and on social platforms. It was actually pretty shameful.

But I think we know schools were closed for way too long. I would argue that some of the fear stoking was excessive, not sure who I blame for that (probably the lamestream media at the end of the day). Some municipalities probably needed to be careful what they wished for - making it hard for offices to reopen at different points, now begging people to come back.

I also think it could be instructive to take a closer look at impact and mitigation tactics pre and post vaccines (they didn't take long to develop in the overall scheme of things), and for different age groups (children, younger people). I know I was way more worried about the inconvenience associated with having cases in our household than the health risks.

But damn we politicized the shit out of the whole thing - so much of the discourse was absolutely not productive, and the misinformation probably cost lives. Not our finest moment as a country, but we haven't had very many of those lately period. But yes. Let's learn from what happened and respond more constructively next time around.
[Post edited by Capital City Hoo at 03/20/2024 08:49AM]