'They're ripping us apart': Bay Area small business owners talk new lockdown
It is sincerely gross of SFGate to run this story without a single comment from a public health or policy expert explaining the rationale for the lockdown. There is journalistic merit in a story about the frustrations and resentments of Bay-area business owners. It is inexcusable to present their dishonest arguments as the only side of the story. I understand that US government officials (deservedly) have lost a lot of confidence from US citizens. But one way to guarantee bad government is by having a press that presents cynical, ignorant mercantilism as straight analysis.<p>The rationale for the lockdown is simple for laypeople like me to grok:<p>- COVID is an extremely contagious and dangerous illness, which is still not well-understood<p>- daily cases in San Francisco have quadrupled in the last month and local hospitals are facing collapse<p>- it is much better to err on the side of caution and strongly discourage people from leaving their homes<p>- from an economic perspective, the problem is the virus and lack of Congressional action, not the SF public health department. The virus quadrupling means that eventually too many people would be sick to patronize the businesses without the lockdown (only with more death and economic devastation).<p>Comments from a handful of professors pointing this out (only less ignorantly) would be very helpful!<p>Instead we get bad-faith comments from intellectually dishonest business leaders, like the fact that no COVID outbreaks have been linked to movie theaters (among all 12 moviegoers since 2-2020) or that proper outdoor dining is safe (and badly enforced), or whining about an absence of “hard evidence” (as if the proper policy for a novel pandemic that’s killed over 200,000 Americans in 9 months is careful double-blind studies).<p>Journalists should not believe that financially distressed business owners are nobly assessing objective risks, while the public health officials are corrupt and unreasonable. Business owners are right to be angry. But the SF government has a job to do, and it is not their fault that state governments in the US cannot afford adequate economic stimulus . The anger needs to be towards the federal government for not providing a well-deserved bailout.