Well, a member of the mainstream media -- on MSNBC, no less -- finally, after months and months, asked The Question.
Her guest: White House COVID adviser and crazed doomer Andy Slavitt.
She asked him:
"Contrast states like Florida and California, California basically in lockdown and their numbers aren't that different from Florida."
Slavitt proceeds to do everything but answer the question.
Before I get to his answer, let me say this:
I'll bet there are some people on our side who wonder if, after all, the experts do have a good explanation for things like the California/Florida comparison, or why COVID curves come sharply down in some places despite no changes in behavior, etc. As this clip with Slavitt demonstrates, they are indeed clueless. But since nobody ever asks them a tough question, the full extent of their cluelessness is seldom on full display.
Now on to Slavitt:
He begins with this:
"Look, there's so much of this virus that we think we understand, that we think we can predict, that's just a little bit beyond our explanation."
This is all I've been asking them to say for the past year. Admit that they don't fully understand it, and that it doesn't behave the way their mitigation guidance seems to suggest it does. Finally someone admits it.
And then, on to the evasion of the question:
"What we do know is that the more careful people are, the more they mask and social distance, and the quicker we vaccinate, the quicker it goes away and the less it spreads, but we have got to get better visibility into variants, we don't know what role they play, large events, etc.
"As we all have learned by this time, this is a virus that continues to surprise us. It’s very hard to predict. And all around the country, we’ve got to continue to do a better job, and I think we are, but we’re done yet."
That's it. That's all he has to say.
Sorry we decimated your savings, took away your sources of joy, destroyed your business, and stole a year of your children's lives. We're just learning, you see.
And we "know," says Slavitt, that the more people "mask and social distance," the quicker it goes away and the less it spreads. In fact, we "know" no such thing. Graph the results any way you like: lockdown stringency, people's mobility patterns, mask mandate dates, whatever. The results are completely random. They absolutely do not show a clear pattern whereby ruining your life solves the problem. Not to mention: the very California/Florida comparison the anchor is asking him about clearly contradicts this claim, but Slavitt just repeats it robotically anyway.
Slavitt also mentions "large events," of which there have been precious few in California over the past year. But there have been a ton in Florida, where I live. Shouldn't our state be marked by piles of corpses at the side of the road, and California be a paradise -- especially since our state has a much higher elderly population?
Andy, you realize there's a camera on you and we're all seeing your responses, right?
Slavitt doesn't know what the explanation is for California and Florida, but he urges you to keep staying poor and socially isolated anyway.
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