Dangerous rhetoric...

Minnesotans remain on house arrest for two more weeks!

So in extending our lock down for another two weeks, our Governor took care to explain the following:

• That we need the lock down to help keep our hospitals from being overwhelmed, without bringing up the fact that our Hospital capacity sits at 35%, with tens of thousands of Minnesotans in the health care industry taking pay cuts, losing hours, or being furloughed all together.
• That we need to extend the lock down because we are supposedly biding our time waiting for some sort of breakthrough with either a cure or a vaccine, without explaining that there will be no such cure or vaccine in the next two weeks. What good does two weeks do when it will likely be several months (or even years) for any such breakthrough, if one occurs at all.
• The Governor continues to suggest that numbers like 18 out of 20 (number of new decedents coming from nursing homes) can be accurately described as "over half". Or that the percentage of all Minnesota deaths coming from people with serious pre-existing conditions is around 90 when the actual number is over 99 (all but one). 

The reality is that our Governor and his medical team obviously either don't trust the empirical data or don't care about the empirical data. They continue to provide a response based on the assumption that what we are currently seeing is an aberration and that eventually everyone (not just nursing home patients with preexisting conditions) will start to die from this virus. Quite literally that appears to be the only thing that make any logical sense. 

The other possibility is that they don't really care to be logical, have no interest in the underlying data, and are not really considering whether the response is medically practical at this point. Sometimes it "feels" more like this is a competition between Governors to see who can provide the most draconian measures and who can hang on to them the longest. We seem to have no ability to switch gears, start looking at this from a data granular standpoint that respects the reality of what is happening over the rhetorical manner in which it is described. They seem too lazy to come up with a measured and practical response that takes the very real data into account.

Whether we like it or not, the Federal Government cannot bail everyone out here. We are already at around two trillion and counting and money does not (contrary to popular opinion) grow on trees. This is going to have a major impact on our state resources and many Minnesotans will suffer financially. These financial issues and the financial suffering of people here in Minnesota can not be blamed on Trump or the Federal Government (which I am sure Walz will try to do). If Walz wants to continue taking credit for what he feels is a successful response medically, then he will need to take the same amount of responsibility for the financial fall out.

Because, like it or not... every action has a reaction, and you are responsible for the seeds that you sow...