A World Beyond Imagination

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TPM Reader SG wonders aloud who is in charge of planning beyond the immediate reactionary panicked COVID-19 response.

So where is this headed? What is the endgame?

Nobody is talking about it.

What will life in a US city look like in July? September? We read in the news that the “peak” is expected mid-late April. But what does that even mean? I guess that is the peak assuming the continuation of social distancing guidelines in place now. But that has to end at some point. When is that? What happens then?

Seems as soon as we start getting back to some semblance of normal, the spread will just start taking off again. Hotspots will pop up. And given the spread by asymptomatic carriers, once a hotspot breaks out, it’s pretty much too late to control without locking everything down again. Is that where we are headed, a game of whack-a-mole as hotspots pop up and get tamped back down, while the rest of the country tries their best to get back to normal? …

The news cycle is focused on the near term. The federal government is entirely reactionary, behind the curve. Who is planning for the long-term? Where is this headed?

Late Update: Readers have flagged the new report from AEI’s Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, about the different phases of the pandemic, including the period after COVID-19 has peaked in a given locale.

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