At Manhattan Contrarian, Francis Menton compares the COVID experience of New York State and Florida. New York is a poster boy for maximum lockdown and mask-wearing; Florida is the poster boy for back-to-normal and don't sweat the masks. They are similar sized states, with about 20 million people each.
COVID Deaths Per Million through 12/20/20:
Florida: 966
New York: 1,886
Yes, but, New York has a very dense city with mass transit and it is further north.
Unemployment at the end of November:
Florida: 6.4%
New York: 8.4% (NYC: 12.1%)
Whatabout state and local government spending in 2018, from usgovernmentspending.com?
Florida: $188 billion
New York: $367 billion
But, according to our cultural and political elite, Gov. Cuomo (D-NY) is a hero, and Gov. DeSantis (R-FL) is a wretch. You tell me.
Then we have the dueling experts, interviewed by UnHerd.com. Swedish expert Johan Giesecke says that:
“I don’t think you can stop it,” he said, “it’s like a tsunami sweeping across Europe.” The real death toll, he suggested, will be in the region of a severe influenza season — maybe double that at most — so we should do what we can to slow it so the health service can cope, but let it pass.
Then there is British expert Neil Ferguson, who wants lockdowns.
Much as he’d love to be proved wrong, he said, the UK fatality rate of Covid-19 is likely to be 0.8-0.9%, which will lead to more than 100,000 deaths later this year. We need to prepare for a long fight, a new socially-distanced normal, potentially for years to come.
So what should we do? Let nature take its course? Or work to protect everyone and prevent transmission of the disease? The question comes down to this, writes Freddie Sayers.
Alongside all the metrics, and the vital assessments of the human cost of different policies, where you stand on this wretched virus also comes down to attitude — your world view. Are you more Giesecke or Ferguson? The expert that most resonates is unlikely to be entirely down to your assessment of the science — more likely a complex combination of your politics, your own life experience, your attitude to risk and mortality and your relationship to authority.
Well, what I say is that it really comes down to men or women. Women, as I say, "expect to be protected," and clearly, from my personal experience, are more likely to go along with the crowd and the pronouncements of political leaders. Men, as I say, "know they are expendable," and they are right.
But I fear that the concentration on the death rate has rather hidden the suffering rate. The sudden lockdown has grievously hurt the less skilled and the less motivated. It has been worse than a war. In war, you draft the young men and the rest of the country flocks to the colors to make themselves useful.
In the COVID crisis, the well-off have done fine, working from home, or seeing their stocks soar in response to economic stimulus -- my net worth is up 25 percent since the end of 2019. But people with marginal skills and without the will to make something happen have been hammered.
So, all is proceeding as Charles Murray analyzed in Coming Apart. The top 25 percent is doin' fine. The middle half is doin' so so, and the bottom 25 percent is being hammered.
And whatabout you allies in the "oppressed peoples, allies, and white oppressors" moral equation? I haven't heard or seen much of you in this disease epidemic. Oh, I've seen a lot of mostly peaceful protesters waffling about George Floyd, but I haven't seen folks on the ally front proposing anything that would really help the traditionally marginalized. Does that mean that "allies" take care of themselves before venturing back out onto the Activism trail?
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