Dying for a Massage

If Brian Kemp, Bill Lee, and Donald Trump all tell you that it's safe to go back in the water, it's time to get a bigger boat.


Guidelines be damned. It's full death ahead. Governors Kemp of Georgia, Lee of Tennessee, and McMaster of South Carolina, fine Republicans who would all look at home in The Cattleman's Club, are going to ignore coronavirus task force guidelines for re-opening, and will get their businesses cranking. Some business owners will re-open as early as Friday, April 24th. Others will get the American way of life back on track May 1st.

None of these states fit the re-opening statistical protocols, and I have yet to read or see an epidemiologist who thinks that this is a good idea. I can't imagine what the rest of the world thinks of the United States.

Where to begin? Well, let's try a quote from Georgia's Gov. Brian Kemp, who learned about asymptomatic transmission (he claimed) on April 1st, "The private sector is going to have to convince the public that it's safe to come back into their businesses." How is this supposed to work, exactly? What are the business owners supposed to do to sweet talk customers into their stores? Post flip cards in their windows, "Just -4- virus customer deaths this month?"

The main flaw with Kemp's approach goes something like this. The COVID-19 pandemic is beyond the life experiences and expertise of virtually every business owner and Georgia resident. So your plan is to rely on people making sound judgements regarding existential threats with which they have zero experience or expertise. And there is really no state or federal mechanism in place to "safety test" businesses. Customers will just have to figure it out for themselves. Meanwhile, the Georgia governor says that he was unaware of asymptomatic transmission until April 1st. Clearly he himself would not be qualified to design or maintain a safe business. He wouldn't even be qualified to be a responsible customer. But somehow, through people dying by going to various places and engaging in dangerous activities, folks will eventually figure out what is or is not safe. That, in a nutshell, is the Georgia plan.

Barbershops, massage parlors, gyms, and nail salons will be among the first to open. The plan, therefore, is not only to open, but to have businesses where physical distancing is impossible to lead the way. Meanwhile, confirmed cases and virus deaths have been rising in the state (right on cue after Easter), but Kemp is determined to have individual freedoms extricated from the manacles of science. Maybe he's another dude for whom, "Jesus is the vaccine."

Tennessee, which a month ago was ranked 49th in virus preparedness, is also ready to open for business. As a Tennessee resident, I'd like to report that traffic in the Tri-Cities area is back to pre-pandemic levels already, and it's Wednesday, April 21st. I believe what will happen, now that dates for re-opening have been announced, is that residents of all of these states will jump the gun on the opening dates and engage in risky behavior days early, since there won't be enforcement of much of anything and any stigma is now absent.

This is going to be a literal unmitigated disaster. How can anyone expect civilians to behave correctly, in their best self-interest, when they are immersed in a situation with which they have absolutely no experience? Not only do the individual residents of Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina have no experience with anything like this, but neither do their family members or local civic and religious leaders. Kemp's decision is akin to dumping his constituents on the Normandy beach without so much as basic training, and then expecting them to make all of the proper decisions. Or maybe, conversely, the frontline service workers most at risk are just considered chum --  expendable minimum-wagers who will get the economy revived for the rest of us.

Of course, city mayors in these states are pushing back. The urban areas feature higher population densities, which means more transmission opportunities and inevitable spikes. The urban centers also feature more people of color, who may not appreciate their role as chum.


April 22, 2020
Bob Dietz