Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   Wow....quite a question Date:   4/22/2020 8:16:19 AM

You can't figure this out?!?!?  Oh wait, you're retired so maybe you've completely forgotten what it's like to get a paycheck.  Must be nice, but tens of millions of your fellow citizens no longer have a job because the Federal and state governments have shut them down.  I am a scientist trained to think logically based on facts and data, not rank emotion and irrational fear stoked by the media nor by politicians that are motivated by one desire, to remain in power.  Recall that when this whole thing got started we were told 2 million Americans were going to die and 30% to 40% of the population were going to get the virus.  We were told the mortality rate was 300 times worse than the flu.  We were told a lot of things that turned out not to be correct.  And the economy and lives are being ruined because of fear stoked by these faulty beliefs.  

Now what if that fear is unfounded?  What if we are risking a depression based on faulty assumptions?  I know you came from government and have way more faith in them than many of us.  But they are frequently wrong.  Their scientists are frequently wrong and often make decisions that are in their best interests and not ordinary working Americans.  I see it every day.  Working in government is not some immediate gift of special insight or omniscience above and beyond what most of us who don't work for government.  So yeah, I am watching this closely and I have become even more convinced that this virus is no worse than the flu, that all the measures and the economic ruin has done little to change the bell curve and that history will judge this as an unnecessary panic, that we could have taken much less drastic economic measures that would have been just as protective and that shutting down 45 states because 5 of them are especially hard hit was a mistake.

But if you want to sit in the corner cowering in fear because of what the media and govt are saying then by all means do so.  As for me, I will continue to examine the facts and data and draw my own conclusions.  If you don't like the truth then I suggest you just watch the networks, wear you mask and live in irrational fear.  As for me, I am planning on letting the truth lead my decision making.