Everything about Paul Romer's plan (<a href="https://roadmap.paulromer.net/" rel="nofollow">https://roadmap.paulromer.net/</a>) makes sense and seems uncontroversial except Step 5: Let everybody get tested and if you get a negative result, you don't have to wear a mask. This permission not to wear a mask is also mentioned in the New Yorker article.<p>But I don't see any justification given for the no-mask part. I can see how it would be an incentive, but I'm not sure it wouldn't just erode the norm of wearing masks until everyone felt they could get away without wearing one.
A sobering and depressing read. What’s even more depressing is we’ll probably stumble through this, get past it (hopefully), and nothing significant will change before the next pandemic, which might be dramatically worse.
Some of the leading vaccines present their own logistical challenges. Some of the leading vaccines (Moderna, Pfizer) are quite fragile and are hard to transport and store. Moderna needs to be shipped and stored at -20C (-4F) this is tricky but not that hard, since it is in the range of commercial freezers. The Pfizer vaccine needs to be shipped and stored at -70C (-94F) which is outside the range of ordinary freezers (bio labs have them but doctors labs do not). Pfizer can be packed in dry ice to ship, but the ice needs to be replenished every 24 hours. <a href="https://twitter.com/LizSzabo/status/1298646754884300800" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/LizSzabo/status/1298646754884300800</a>
This seems like a well-researched article.<p>But I've read an article or two from the New Yorker before in my area of expertise-- music-- where I noticed logical flaws and spurious arguments. According to the well-known Gell-Mann Amnesia effect-- an effect which gets posted on HN like clockwork on any story wrt journalism (which I proudly continue here)-- I should therefore reject this article out of hand.<p>People who incessantly paste links to the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect-- am I generously interpretating the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect here? If not, what am I missing?