Governor Ned Lamont is an imitative politician, which is okay,
provided your model is a fitting one.
Connecticut, we know, is not New York. Indeed, it is
precisely because Connecticut is not New York that New Yorkers, in pre- income
tax days when Connecticut state government was far less rapacious, flooded into
the state. The New York expatriates were looking for a modest state government
and settled in Fairfield County, then aflame with job opportunities.
New York City is an international port of call; Connecticut,
not so much. Coronavirus is most virulent in Fairfield County because Fairfield
County, contiguous to New York, is New York’s watch pocket, to some degree a bedroom community many of
whose residents either work in New York City or travel there on business.
Fairfield County is not Hartford. For all these reasons, thoughtless imitation
in the absence of political discernment, far from being the sincerest form of flattery,
may be a dangerous form of narcissism.
Once proper distinctions are made by Connecticut politicians,
policy prescriptions become, more granular, more fitting – to Connecticut. But
proper distinctions are not likely to be made by Connecticut politicians who
simply repeat policies, successful or not, launched by New York governors.
Just as New York is not Connecticut, so Fairfield County, a coronavirus hotspot in Connecticut, is not New London. There are in New York City 33,768 confirmed cases of Coronavirus and 776 related deaths, according to the John Hopkins Coronavirus map. The figures to date for Fairfield County, close to New York, are 1,445 cases and 21 deaths. There are in New London County 24 confirmed cases and 0 deaths. Windham County has 10 confirmed cases and 0 deaths. There are large patches of Connecticut in which there are 0-5 confirmed cases and no deaths. Total numbers may increase, but total figures are only indicative. The telling figure is a bell curve showing the increase and decrease of Coronavirus within a specified area, because the curve tells us when the infestation is abating – when, in other words 10 rather than five people will be able to assemble at a doughnut shop for coffee and conversation without being hassled by solicitous governors. Lamont recently has set the allowable assembly figure at 5 rather than, say, 10.
The truth is we do not know our place on the bell curve – yet.
This is what we know for certain: Coronavirus is subject
to Newton’s Third Law of Motion; for every action, there is an equal and opposite
reaction. Or, to put in in terms that even a Black Death victim of 1346–1353
might have understood, what goes up must come down. The Black Death, which probably
originated in Central or East Asia, carried off 40 to 60 percent of the
population of Europe and reduced world population from 475 million to
350–375 million. We should all fall on our knees and thank God that 2020 is not
1346.
We also know that some strategies have been more successful
than others in mitigating the mortality rate of Coronavirus; South Korea has
been a successful battler. We know that, in the case of viruses, herd immunity
works; when a sufficient number of people have contracted and fended off Coronavirus,
it becomes less lethal to the general population. We know that a granular
response to viral infestations may be more successful than a broad-brush
response. In most of Australia, parents decide whether they wish to send their children to
school, though the government has advised that children should be kept at home -- when possible. Sweden, according to National Review, has avoided a harsh quarantine. Emma Frans, a doctor in epidemiology at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, told Euronews. “We try to adjust everyday life. The Swedish plan is to implement measurements that you can practice for a long time."
We know that we ought not to burn down the economic house to
catch a Coronavirus mouse. We know that about 44 percent of economic activity in the
United States is small business related, and we know that such businesses
cannot survive a protracted, politically caused business shutdown. We know that
it is the political response to Coronavirus, necessary or not, and not the
virus itself, that is the cause of small business inactivity. It is the
politician and not the undertaker that has produced the widespread business
shutdown in Connecticut. And, finally, we know that the economic bite may in
the long run be far worse than the coronavirus bark in, say, Windham.
The lifespan of a small business deprived of business is
about two months. Once dead, these businesses cannot be started up again
without massive and continuous infusions of cash. Finally, the hardihood of our
economy, both in Connecticut and the nation, depends upon liberty, creativity
and independence and not, as is the case with the nation’s absorbent welfare
dependency, what Blanche Dubois calls in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire “the kindness
of strangers.”
Knowing all this, why do we persist in treating Windham as
if it were New York City or even Fairfield County? The targeting of Coronavirus
in South Korea was focused upon what we have learned to call here “hot spots.”
The same may be true in China, though of course in China the data may be as undependable as the Chinese Communist government thinks is prudent. In a
government socialized from top to bottom, truth is the first casualty of useful
propaganda.
One hopes the same is not true among politicians in
Connecticut, once called “the land of steady habits.”
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