Lose-Lose

It's impossible to miss the most polarizing debate of the moment: “open now and take our chances (which are good because the whole thing is over-hyped”) and “opening too soon will be a disaster of indescribable proportions.”

Although I tend toward the latter, there is, so far (as of this date), no data to support it. I see no trends in early-open states and municipalities that are indisputably causes of concern.

If this continues – if the apocalypse does not materialize – the new world will be noticeably more anti-science than even the remarkably anti-science world of the last three years. Science took the riskiest stand in our lifetimes – and it was wrong. No one will forget that. The history of this era will feature that failure, and our children and grandchildren will wonder what we were thinking.

It looks, from this vantage point, like lose-lose. Either increasing death and devastation, or the invalidation of scientific expertise for a generation.

Imagine the chances of addressing climate change in that environment.