On today’s show we’re talking about chaos. This year has been anything but orderly. The handling of the pandemic by governments all over the world has been met with raging opinions across the board. There are those who believe governments are not doing enough to keep us safe. There are others who believe the entire response to the pandemic is overblown.
In order to effect the best decisions the right things need to happen, and they need to happen the right way. You will never please everyone. But if the rules appear arbitrary and inconsistent, that very fact will reduce faith in the rules and reduce compliance with the rules.
The level of frustration in the population stems from the seeming contradictions in public policy. It’s difficult to reconcile those contradictions.
There was the time when public officials told the population that masks were a bad idea. That guidance made no sense. It was not honest, and anyone with a shred of intelligence knew it. Now masks are mandatory in many places, but not all places.
A full scale lock down of the population was seen by many as being heavy-handed. Taking a walk in the forest, distanced from others was not putting anyone at risk of either spreading nor contracting Covid-19. But for a time, it was against regulations in many states, towns and nations.
It’s pretty clear that we are entering a second wave outbreak of Covid-19.
But our governments are acting in an inconsistent way. My own provincial government closed down restaurants, gyms, and strip clubs this weekend for at least the next month. But they kept schools and universities open. This defies logic. In response to the restaurant closure, I know of several people who chose to go out for dinner in a restaurant for one last “hurrah” before the restaurant closures. If it’s not safe to go in a restaurant on Saturday, then it’s probably not safe of Friday night either. If smart educated people are defying logic, then they’re not believing what government is saying to them.
We’ve been seeing that the majority of new cases in younger people. Yet, we’re doing nothing to reduce social contact in younger people. In our school system student in 4thgrade need to wear masks. Students in 3rd grade or younger need to wear masks. I know of one teacher who teaches a split class where half the students are in third grade and half and in fourth grade. Half the students are wearing masks and the other half are not.
In Europe, there is a patchwork of regulations that are difficult to understand, and again seem to defy logic.
The loosening of restrictions this summer helped Europe’s economy and partly saved the tourism season that is critical in countries such as Italy and Spain. But it also contributed to a sizable jump in the number of infections. Countries such as the U.K., France and Spain are now logging confirmed infections close to or above last spring’s numbers.
Restricting arrivals from outside Europe isn’t an effective containment method when you have a rampant pandemic like we are seeing right now in most of Europe. Travel restrictions from abroad work in places like New Zealand and Australia where the case counts are extremely low and they have effectively kept Covid-19 out of the country. But when you have a full-on pandemic and you can travel freely within the EU, the logic makes no sense.
If you’re confused by now, you’re probably getting the idea that governments are having a hard time getting their arms around making decisions.
I follow Dr. Chris Martenson and Adam Taggart at Peak Prosperity. They have a very solid science based video series on Youtube that is published regularly with the latest on what has been learned. I also follow the work of Dr. John Campbell in England who has done a great job of curating the scientific and medical studies on the pandemic.
