Cav's Place

When I mentioned having another quick post in mind, but avoiding it because it required more time, attention and, most importantly, skill, I was referring to one stating that, with how things are going, we’re getting to the point where we’d need a new and proper lockdown implemented worldwide, with only military and medical personnel normally allowed on the streets and systems, which should have been created and tested by now, to distribute the necessary goods and provide the necessary services to people, free of charge, in order to completely end this in a couple of months and also have a proper test run on the largest scale not only for the measures meant to quickly end any similar pandemics in the future, but also for parts of the economic system the world needs to move to. But, as I already mentioned, even scratching the surface of such a topic would require far more than I could offer even if I’d dedicate days to it, and now I’m just throwing this post here in an hour or so.
Under these circumstances, I’ll just stick to what’s going on here, where in late July the number of confirmed daily and weekly cases reached some three and a half times the highest levels seen while we were under the state of emergency and the much more important one of deaths exceeded the highest levels reported then around the same time. Worse, while the number of confirmed cases has remained quite steady, there are an increasing number of deaths and people in intensive care, both numbers reaching new records yesterday, which records I’m sure will soon be broken yet again, and the 14-day cumulative number of deaths per 100000 people is by far the highest in the European Union, double that of second-placed Bulgaria and four times that of third-placed Spain and Malta. And, back to those records, the fact that they were reported yesterday is even more notable because that was when the measures supposed to limit spreading the virus were relaxed even more, indoor restaurants and theaters also being allowed to open as of then, even if at reduced capacity, so I’m expecting another sharp increase in a week or two… Which will be just in time for the schools opening as well, on September 14, which will quite certainly lead to yet another increase, which should be seen just in time for the local elections, scheduled for September 27, by which time the collapse of the medical system will become even more probable, if not pretty much certain. Not that it was working well to begin with, or that it can properly cope even with the current situation, which keeps causing even more cracks to appear and leaving even more people suffering from any other ailments without the care they need.
Though such statements strike me as unwise even there, maybe Germany can keep going in this manner, having a medical system which has continued to cope with the situation in a manner that, all things considered, can be described as exemplary, and likely also a larger part of the population willing to be responsible, more individuals, groups, businesses, institutions and other organizations doing their part, despite the idiots striving to undermine all these efforts. Also, though this should be seen and used as the great opportunity it is to move away from classrooms and towards distance and individual, and also far more personalized, learning, maybe some other countries that are reopening schools despite the growing number of cases can also manage the situation, at least when it comes to those that are only seeing more confirmed cases with mild or no symptoms and which are followed by a full recovery, which may simply be a result of more and better testing, the number of serious cases and deaths holding relatively steady or even decreasing. But Romania is in no way in either of those situations, and yet the current decisions seem determined to make things much, much worse, the president again stating today that he was assured by those responsible that, as things currently stand, the situation can be managed sufficiently well to allow matters to progress as scheduled.
Remaining as “allergic” as usual to conspiracy theories and sticking to Hanlon’s razor, “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity“, I’ll just say that this is criminal incompetence and negligence, and I’m accusing all those responsible for this state of affairs of those things, from authorities to businesses and interest groups, and to individuals who don’t actively demand better, not to mention those who actually push back against even what is still being done. And yes, I see that I was completely wrong when I thought that the current situation showed what we can do when we admit that a crisis exists. I guess the rule remains the same: “Analyze the problem, choose whichever strategy makes least sense and then do it.“