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Politicians Are Stuck. And It’s All Their Fault.
Maybe 20 years ago I was seeing patients with a medical student. An elderly lady brought in her husband, saying that he was feeling weak, eating less, losing weight, and in general not doing well. She wanted me to put him in the hospital, do a bunch of tests, and figure out what was wrong. I said no, let’s start by checking this or that. In the hallway after the visit, the medical student told me that he thought admission was reasonable – the patient was getting worse, and my outpatient workup could take weeks. I told the medical student that he was not sick enough to be admitted. The medical student asked why not, and I responded, “For lots of reasons, not the least of which is this: If you admit someone who’s not all that sick, with no clear diagnosis, then when the heck do you discharge them? You’re stuck. At that point, you really can’t send him home until something is better. What if you can’t find anything? What if it can’t be treated? Don’t admit anyone unless you know what you’re trying to fix, or else you’ll paint yourself into a corner. There are exceptions, of course. But in general, that’s a bad idea.”
There are a lot of governors and other politicians who are stuck right now. When you shut down the entire economy and scare the crap out of everybody for a virus that turns out to have a fairly low fatality rate, then when do you stop? How do you stop? Politicians, seeking the gratitude and votes of their citizens, have represented themselves as our saviors: “Just do what I say, and I’ll take care of this.”Ok. So now COVID-19 is no longer an act of God that must be dealt with, but instead it’s a public policy matter that your government can manage. Don’t listen to those people over there. Listen to me. I’ll protect you, because I care. Listen to me – I’m your savior.
Ok, savior, now what? What progress has been made in treating this patient, and when do our saviors declare the patient to be cured, and send them home from the hospital? Politicians have taken ownership of something they cannot possibly control. And now they’re stuck.
I hope that medical student listened to me. But he probably didn’t. I had a professor tell me the same thing back in medical school, but I had to make that mistake a few times to really understand his advice. This medical student probably did the same thing. It’s called practicing medicine.
Those who practice politics have made one doozy of a miscalculation here. I’m not sure how they envisioned their exit strategy. But this virus is not going to disappear tomorrow. It will go on for some months or years.
But now, instead of cursing the virus, now we’re complaining about our political leaders. Our politicians are being blamed for something beyond their control. Why?
Because they took ownership of something they can’t possibly control.
And now they’re stuck.
And so are we.
Published in General
Gretchen has no idea how deep the hole is already. She keeps digging. Reckoning won’t be pretty, but it will be hilarious. Unless it’s horrific.
Doc, that is probably the clearest, most concise statement of our current situation that I have read or heard. Thanks!
I wonder how it feels to be the national example of how to do it wrong.
Some more that others. Thank Goodness for the many little petri dish approach we are currently allowed to have here.
I am sorry – and sad – to have become so cynical, but I believe it will be over as soon as/if Trump loses. Suddenly all the ludicrous over-counting will become undercounting (or maybe even, finally, honest counting) and the thing will evaporate, mission accomplished.
Doc, I agree with your analogy but I am so old that when I started medical school it was common practice to admit someone to the hospital and run days and days of tests just to be certain that there wasn’t something going on that might be worth treating. Not finding a serious pathology was considered a good thing.
I don’t think that works. They have thrown a lot of fear into a lot of people. I have cousins that are terrified of going outside without masks. A lot of people will insist on working from home. Office space in cities will plunge in value. Small businesses downtown (those which haven’t been looted into bankruptcy) won’t have the foot traffic that is their lifeblood. If they believe that there is a switch that they can throw, they will be disabused of the notion.
The problem with riding the tiger is the dismount.
Agreed. However, this will also become honest counting if Trump wins. Why ? Because it will be another in a long line of things used to destroy him, that failed. Then the next “thing” will commence.
Virginias’ Governor Northam staffing up to yank the business licenses of the surviving bars and restaurants he has managed to kill off is an inspirational sight. The “free speech” rioting and arson and pillaging becomes clear when the oppressor steps up with such sadistic glee. Sic semper tyrannis, governor. It’s the state motto. Look it up.
There are no rules saying it can’t be both.
I heard a couple of wags in a restaurant the other day saying that if it hadn’t been for the bordellos they wouldn’t have know what to do with themselves over the lockdown. That kind of respect for the governor just leaves me misty eyed.
A few of the clod politicians may realize the damage they’re unnecessarily causing and just enjoy the power this is giving them. I agree that the objective for many is getting rid of Trump but that doesn’t explain the international nuttiness.
Exactly.
I’ve been thinking lately that this chapter in the American story has turned into something similar to the prolonged (and I often think pointless) War on Drugs. A crisis that becomes a way of life invites corruption of all kinds.
I’m a management-by-objectives believer. We desperately need that type of executive strategy now to pull up from this rapid descent. :-)
The general rule of extortion is that you stop, when the victim has nothing left to give. How you stop is that you declare victory and move on. Here, the politicians are extracting power, which will end on election day.
The shut downs are a version of insanity. They did not lower the infection rate but they keep getting re-imposed. Isn’t the definition of insanity “doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results?”
YGBKM. Do you really think that having gained supremacy they’d throw away the whip that got them there? Why would one think they would do that?
We will cope with the latter, as long as it brings the former.
Will anyone be surprised when she digs her way to China?
She’ll hit the water table eventually.
The media was very good at convincing people that if they shut down most people could avoid contracting the virus. Flatten the curve got forgotten.
Demons don’t need to breath.
That was the big worry at Chernobyl too. They had to tunnel quickly, if the movie got that right.
From outside Michigan, Gretchen Dahmer in particular looks like a cartoon. Ok, Hizzonah Big Shot in NY plays a passable Don, and McHottie in CA is aging well, but Nurse Gretchen stands out. What is this cancer in the heartland that elected her?
‘Cuz, then they’d have to start whipping Biden, and they ain’t gonna do that. Of course, they’ll still be able to crack on “Today, Republican governors…”
I was thinking about this a couple of weeks ago. I think this is something the Trump campaign needs to consider, that there may be an unstated wish on the part of voters to get out of the present seemingly endless feedback loop by voting for the other party–that is, the Democrats. I think it’s a problem for the Trump administration. There’s the Democrats accusing him of mismanaging the virus (which I don’t think he did), so that’s one faction voting against him. But there may also be a small group of people–and if the election is close, a small group may have a disproportionate influence on the outcome–who don’t see how he can defend his administration’s handling of the virus and also back us out of the untenable position we are in right now. I think it will be important for his campaign to assert a plan for going forward. The campaign needs to list some concrete attainable goals for managing infectious diseases in an age of international air travel. The goals should be worded briefly so that they are easy for voters to understand and remember.
If those people are content for the Dems to just flip the switch and suddenly the same number of deaths is “good news” rather than “bad news,” while also enabling all the other insanity that the Dems want to do… well that’s just stupid, or even insane.
I am pretty sure Gretchen is enjoying this. She has enough democrats in the legislature to sustain her vetos, the attorney general is her wingwoman, and the courts have enough democrats on them that they are a rubber stamp for her. The business owners who are being crushed are probably kulak republicans anyway. A large number of Michiganders are more focused on a mythical safety, and are really not concerned with either freedom or representative democracy . Freedom & Industry are the birthright of Michiganders, and we are happy to sell our birthright for a yummy hot bowl of lentil soup. Comfort Food! When the election comes eventually, it will be mail in votes with the votes counted by a Democrat Secretary of State. The Detroit Free Press is full on hard left progressive, and the alternative paper is The Detroit News, which is centrist moderate liberal at best.
Gretchen Whitmer is in her version of heaven on earth. Why would she ever want this to end?
If I get let go from my job, or choose to retire, I am moving away from here.
Embrace the power of Both.
And therefore it’s not just the politicians and their executive orders that have the problem of what criteria are used to engage in regular human interaction. We’re having this problem at our church. Many members don’t think in-person church should happen until we can guarantee that no one will contract the virus at church.
My wife (who is on the church committee that decides what activities do and do not take place) and I have been asking throughout the process, “what has to change before in-person church resumes?” The only concrete answer that we hear is “when there’s an effective vaccine that is widely available.” But that’s likely yet a year in the future (especially the widely available part). It is not possible to hold the current situation for a year or more and not expect enormous changes to people’s personalities, mental and physical well-being, the health of the voluntary and commercial associations that drive progress, and to American society in general.