Call me a pandemic worry wart, but I don’t have a good feeling about this reopening. The fast pace that social distancing restrictions are being lifted across the country is driven much more by politics than by public health. Of course we all want to fire up the ol’ economy and do whatever we want with whoever we want wherever we want—but that level of “freedom” may be in direct conflict with, you know, staying alive.
This is really one big public health experiment with incredibly high stakes. Loosening restrictions too quickly may lead to new contagion which might send the economy into another tailspin. (Jeez, I wish I was just being conspiratorial writing that instead of cautious.) I sure hope we don’t see a new spike in coronavirus two weeks from Memorial Day.
The most ominous sign is that ignoring vital public health practices has become a badge of political identity. It’ll be pretty hard to stop a pandemic if half the country keeps crying “hoax” about science. I thought the least I could do was create a new product that might appeal to the pandemic deniers for more base political reasons.