‘What’s the Science’ right on
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To the editor:
With regard to your “Idle Chatter” column in the 23 April Mount Ayr Record News, I can only say AMEN to “What’s the Science?”
Just because there’s not much credible/sound scientific data about COVID-19 doesn’t mean everybody and his dog doesn’t have an opinion, and unfortunately the interaction of “expert” opinion and government ability to “solve” problems has put the economy on the verge of collapse.
As far as I know, the Corona virus has no ability to leap great distances without an infected human host, and that in turn raises the question of why government hasn’t mandated travel restrictions to preclude inadvertent virus “community spread” by someone who traveled out-of-area and brought the disease back.
With regard to “essential” businesses, the workers go home when they’re off-shift, and if the virus gets into the workplace it gets carried into the community.
While there are clearly essential businesses and functions (though the two are not the same thing”, testing of the workers who have direct contact with the public (e.g. direct care medical people and grocery store employees) should be instituted as a matter of priority, and even realizing the ostensible time frame for spreading the disease is 14 days, a “clean test” today and daily monitoring of temperature thereafter would presumably minimize inadvertent virus spread.
As a directly related subject, in my opinion the “15 minute rapid response test” machine received by Ringgold County Hospital (23 April Mount Ayr Record News front page top half “RCH trustees…”article Col 2) should be at work 24/7 with the first priority for testing being the workers, not the patients, because the only way the corona virus can get into the nursing homes, etc now is to be brought in by staff (assuming deliveries are at-the-door).
******
If you want something to do while you’re “sheltering in place,” maybe you should give some thought to reconciliation of the Governor’s Proclamation(s) closing businesses and the right to peaceably assemble written into both Constitutions.
Kevin Kilgore
Diagonal
One of the most dangerous powers of any government…is the power to foreclose knowledge from affecting decisions. Given that most specific knowledge is widely scattered in fragments among vast numbers of human beings, decisions made by any manageably small number of government planners is likely to be based on far less knowledge than is available in the society as a whole. Yet, once the government’s decisions have been turned into law and policies, it no longer matters whether the beliefs on which they are based are true or false. Power trumps truth.
BASIC
ECONOMICS
–Thomas Sowell