Phase 2 and a half

The Governor is supposed to talk later today about the COVID numbers and the status of the "phased reopneing."  Currently, Phase 2 is scheduled to end this coming Friday, but we have every reason to believe that will be extended again. That seems to be making some folks in Jefferson and St. Tammany Parishes cranky but the numbers are what they are and they say it isn't time yet. 

Of course, this isn't really an argument about numbers.  Instead it is about power.  Specifically it is about the power of individuals who, by virtue of their economic status, are less at risk to the virus than the people they want to force back into dangerous jobs for their benefit.  

In Jefferson, some council members said they understand waiting to gauge the fallout from school reopenings and the Laura evacuations, but they were united in believing Jefferson is in good enough shape to reopen. In St. Tammany, one council member voted against the request.

Several Jefferson council members own small businesses or come from families that do, and local business groups spoke of impending financial disaster for bars, restaurants and other small businesses and their owners and employees.

Much of this moot if congress had implemented a national policy of aid to small business and direct payments to workers to protect everyone during the health crisis.  Instead we've chosen this bloody struggle in the chaos. The only outcome under that circumstance can be more precarious working conditions for everyone. And the only way to send everyone out when it isn't safe to be there is if we pretend that it is. And it turns out, for some people, that's pretty easy to do now. 

(Tulane epidemiologist Susan) Hassig said many pushing for a faster opening often haven’t had first-hand experience with severe cases of the disease, which exact their terrible toll away from public view in the intensive care units of hospitals.

Those who died during the 1918 influenza epidemic, on the other hand, “if they weren’t in your apartment, they were in the row house next to you, and you saw the body out on the curb.”

“It’s not fake; it’s real,” she said. “The challenge is that people see relatively small numbers in terms of fatalities as a proportion of infections … but when you start thinking about opening up and allowing virus to spread, that impact grows really quickly.”

And, of course, this fit is occurring at the exact moment that schools and universities are running their own experiments with classroom instruction for the fall. Hassig says in this article that that alone equates to about a "reopening" for about 20 percent of the population. We're in Phase 2 and half right now.  Maybe let's not take this moment to try and rush on through to Phase 3.