Pirate's Cove

If you remember, the NY Times wasn’t particularly enthused about President Trump’s travel bans, first on China then on Europe. Just like the rest of their Democratic Party Comrades. Now? The editorial board has Ideas

The Coronavirus Is Mutating, and America’s Leaders Are Flying Blind

A new and potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus has been detected in Britain and elsewhere. With the Trump administration continuing to do little to address the pandemic, state and local leaders have, again, been left to deal with this problem on their own.

To that end, on Monday Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York persuaded major airlines to require people traveling from Britain to New York to first clear a coronavirus test. Mr. Cuomo’s willingness to act quickly and decisively here is commendable — refreshing in a year rife with failures to do exactly that — and the move seems reasonable in the face of federal inaction and many unknowns.

It wasn’t so commendable when Trump did this, eh? It’s also sorta beyond Cuomo’s actual Constitutional, federal and state, powers.

Genomic surveillance is also one of the few ways officials can determine whether, where and how to put travel restrictions in place. Without this data, even the fastest-acting, best-intentioned leaders — like Mr. Cuomo, in this case — are flying blind. They have no way to know which countries such measures should focus on, or whether such an effort would be worth the political blowback. For instance, it may not be worth it if the variant in question is already circulating widely in the United States, or if only a tiny amount of spread is being driven by overseas cases.

Well, sure, looking at the genomes of those who have COVID could be worthwhile. But, is that really, really what the NYTEB is pushing?

But to truly solve this problem, federal officials need to increase the nation’s disease surveillance efforts, and in particular its genomic surveillance. Until they do that, Americans everywhere will be stuck in the same place we’ve been for the better part of this year: making often brutal sacrifices to try to slow the spread of the virus ourselves.

Yeah, not just genome, but, surveillance on everyone, in order to track everyone. Where they go, who they see. Like states try and do with your smartphones. How soon till some Dem party run states start requiring this, rather than asking? As for sacrifices, what sacrifices have politicians and the news media made? They’re still getting paychecks. They aren’t going out of business

It’s unfair that individuals and small businesses have borne so much of that pain. But right now, it’s the only way to squelch this mutant — and any other that has yet to be detected.

You peons will just have to suffer more. It’s easy for people who aren’t being hit with loss of money, etc, who really do not have skin in the game.

Remember, those who are shutting down our economy haven't missed a paycheck since lockdown began. We are not in this together.

— Van Morrison (@vanmorrison) December 21, 2020

Van’s tweet is mostly aimed at the Irish government, but, he’s utterly correct. It’s easy for news outlets to call for draconian measures, when they do not have to pay the penalties.