packbat | dark covid thoughts about public response in US states and the UK

In 2019, we were in a car rolling down a hill with the accelerator - widespread superspreader events occurring as normal - floored. The speedometer of positive cases was rising exponentially, doubling every two days. We in the US started to notice the climbing speedometer and lift the accelerator in early 2020, but it wasn't until spring that we really started to press the brakes - institute lockdowns and mask mandates and such.

...the thing is, we could have watched the speedometer to make sure we were coming to a stop.

Or we could have watched the speedometer to make sure we were keeping the velocity low.

Or, like, we even could have watched the speedometer just to see if the speed was climbing too high.

In all of these cases, we'd be watching the speedometer and feeling when it was high or low ... and I don't think that's what we did.

I think we - and by we I mean our governments, our corporations, our festivals, our media - didn't care how fast we were going. If we were accelerating, they'd let up the accelerator a little, and maybe tap the brakes. If we were slowing down, they'd let up the brakes and mash the gas.

If we'd done nothing, the doubling time would be two days. Doing what we did, it was forty-five days.

It's exponential growth. It's the same pandemic, just slower.