Winning a Pyrrhic victory by mismanaging our total war against the coronavirus

Last update: Monday 3/1/21

Wars are won by generalists, not specialists; the highest ranking warriors are usually called "generals". This is true for all wars, but it is especially true for total wars wherein large segments of the population are at risk. Generals have to understand the "big picture".

The coming uneven, messy, confusing end of the COVID pandemic

Last Update: Saturday 2/27/21

Today's media are abuzz with talk about the light at the end of the long pandemic tunnel, a sighting enabled by the widespread distribution of multiple vaccines. Unfortunately, our exit from the pandemic will probably be as uneven, messy, and confusing as our entry. Why? Because our current roster of medical policy advisers are misapplying the same national framework that caused their predecessors under President Trump to call for a national lockdown in March 2020 when there were fewer than 20 thousand known cases in the entire country, and those cases were located in just a few states.

Winning and losing pandemic wars

Last update: Wednesday 2/24/21

 

There seems to be widespread agreement that the primary goal of our total war against the coronavirus is to save as many lives as possible. This is not surprising given the fact that we have allowed health care experts, i.e., doctors and other medical specialists, to oversee our war efforts. 

"COVID-shaming" -- As odious and as ineffective as "fat-shaming"

Last update: Friday 2/19/21

Editor's note: Regular readers of this blog know that as a retired college professor, I have been continuously disappointed by the persistent tendency of the members of the president's task force, first Trump's and now Biden's, to attempt to get more people to adhere to the social mitigation guidelines or, more recently, to get more people to get vaccinated by "shaming" them. As per the title of this blog note, shaming is an odious and ineffective practice that doesn't belong in the school yards, where most of us first encountered it, in sports, in doctor's offices, nor in task force briefings.