Patience Please
Things I don’t want “pretty much, ready to go” or “almost finished.”:
Reopening health and fitness centers.
The breaks on my car.
A roller coaster.
The kill switch on an atom bomb.
Reopening the beaches.
Anesthesia at my prostate surgery.
Elevators.
Clearing out poison ivy from the back yard.
Reopening restaurants and movie theaters.
The kill switch on my chain saw.
My income tax return.
My recovery from shingles.
In-person voting.
Times Square reopening.
DaVinci’s painting of the Mona Lisa.
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
End to social distancing.
My mother’s last will and testament.
Yankee Stadium reopening.
Face masks.
Brain surgery.
Hemorrhoid removal.
Orgasms.
Punch line to the best joke ever told.
So please don’t tell me that the economy has to reopen now because to wait would further damage the economy, essentially making the cure worse than the disease. Repeat that in the ICUs around the world.
I want to be totally ready before reopening the country. But I want it based on scientific data about how and when the country can reopen without risking a second outbreak.
That doesn’t mean that it can’t be done in phases. That way the incidence of new cases could be monitored while social distancing could still be enforced.
But.
The motivation for businesses to reopen is to start making money again and to resume jobs. I’ve no problem with this but my worry is the profit motive may get the better of discretion. I know that’s so unlikely and that businesses tend to be not most concerned with profit but most concerned with the welfare of their customers. On what planet?
Take fitness centers for example. My experience is that the owners tend to be Republicans who tend to be mistrustful of the scientific community. I know that’s a stretch but stay with me.
Such places tend to attract both men and women who think they are indestructible and tougher than the virus and who tend to get their information from a particular silo filled with bull, the same silo that educates the owners. And people sweat, expel bodily fluids and bump into each other.
So we have a breeding ground not just for bad choices but also for the virus itself.
Other places might be a bit less dicey. Restaurants could limit the number of customers and place tables far apart. Workers could all wear masks but I think it would be a bit unworkable for diners to be masked while they eat their pasta primavera.
Movie theaters? Fugetaboutit. People get lost in the movie and are not likely to stay away from others. And the are dark, leaving the bad apples space to rot the rest of the crop, so to speak.
Retail stores are plausible if the number of customers is limited and wearing masks are not up for debate.
So the next time the guy at the repair shop says your breaks are pretty much ready to go, you should tell him that you can wait until they are totally ready and safe.