Powerline spot on!

 The politics of coronavirus

• The Democrats’ effort to blame coronavirus on Trump is doomed to fail. Most people simply aren’t that dumb.
• On the contrary, the pandemic shows that Trump was right all along about China. While low wages are superficially attractive, there are many disadvantages to doing business there. In the medium and long terms, coronavirus will boost the American economy.
• So far, voters are entirely indifferent to the Democrats’ attempts to gain political advantage from coronavirus. The Rasmussen Survey hasn’t budged, one way or the other. Today Trump stands at 49%/50% in the rolling approval poll.
• One of the Democrats’ problems with coronavirus is that it isn’t a very threatening disease. The press would have you believe that it is the 21st Century version of the Black Death, but it is actually more like a bad cold.
• The stock market has taken a hit, but it is certain to rebound, and soon. There is no realistic scenario on which the virus, which is fatal overwhelmingly to elderly and unhealthy people, adversely impacts our economy to a significant extent. It is the panic which now affects our economy, not the disease. By November that will be obvious.
• Early on, President Trump did the right thing: he tried to damp down the panic, while at the same time taking the measures that would have practical effect, in particular, banning China travel. As press hysteria mounted, he shifted toward visible activism. 
• Long before November, it will be obvious to everyone that fear of coronavirus was vastly overblown. That is my opinion, anyway. In that scenario, Democratic attacks on Trump’s handling of a “crisis” that fizzled will be ineffective at best. 
• Then again, maybe I am wrong. Maybe by November coronavirus hasn’t dissipated and people are worried about it. What then? In a crisis of any kind–war, depression, epidemic–most people want a strong executive. This is an instinctive preference. If we are under a serious threat, we want a strong, effective person to lead us. That impulse has been consistent for thousands of years.

Most people are avoiding the obvious political ramifications of the coronavirus. There is a reason why Republicans and Democrats are seeing this differently, and it's not because one side is stupid or ill informed. Quite literally we are being told different things based on which media outlets we use.

I think the early advantage in a situation like this is panic. Much easier psychologically to scare people and put them on edge as it is to calm people and keep them reassured. Once people are panicked, the concept of calm and reassurance can come across as insensitivity and discounting of something that the panicked are worried about. Someone remaining calm can be accused of not taking it seriously.

But I think Hinderaker's analysis is difficult to argue with. If you relied on the CDC and State medical boards, rather than the media and politicians, things would be quite a bit different. For instance, our local school district continues to send out coronavirus updates, which includes the reality that the CDC is not recommending that schools close at this time. 

What that means is that every school district that closes, is quite literally "not" listening to the CDC (the Center of Disease Control) which is made up educated experts in the field of viruses, diseases, and how to control them. These are decisions being made by government officials or school boards which is being entirely driven by panic. 

Same could be argued in places like Seattle here, where many things have literally been shut down at the authority of the Governor. This is happening even as the CDC tells that there is no evidence at this time that people are contracting the coronavirus through anything other than close contact with someone showing symptoms.  The CDC suggests that it's possible that you contract it from someone not showing symptoms or by contact with a neutral surface, but that it's not the working manner in which it is being passed right now. That could certainly change, but stories of people picking up coronavirus by touching a surface is at best the exception to the general rule (or at worst a working throry) rather than anything that is actually happening to any extent.

To error on the side of caution is generally a good thing. But to overreact at the risk of throwing us into a global recession is irresponsible. The bottom line is that if this fizzles out or falls short of the numbers we saw during the swine flu, there will be an objective reality that our President did NOT screw things up, like liberals are claiming (aka: shouting at the top of their lungs) right now.