Squash the sombrero but not too much
Published in the Boulder Daily Camera, 3/30/20
By virtue of their cleverness, the English have once again proven that they deserve the right to maintain stewardship of our shared language. I say this having spent most of the first three weeks of March in London tracking the outbreak of the coronavirus through an English lens. English media coverage of the crisis was not only more data-based and scientifically illuminating than our overly political blather, it was also more colorful.
My favorite was the language Boris Johnson, England's Prime Minister, chose to describe the health imperative of "flattening the curve" of the outbreak to reduce the shock to our health systems. Nobody wants to see grammie gasping on a gurney because the ventilators were already busy. To get grammie her ventilator, we need to do things to slow down spread of the disease. A mathematician would describe this as, "flattening the curve," which is why mathematicians are not called upon when what we need is compelling rhetoric. Boris, who studied Classics at Oxford, chose to tell the nation that what they needed to do was, "squash the sombrero," speaking metaphorically of the shape of the Coronavirus curve. Boris called upon the British people to put their metaphorical foot on the crown of that sombrero – the high point on the curve – and squash it. Inspirational in a Monty Python sort of way, don't you think?
So, here we are in Boulder doing our bit to squash our own sombrero and we are learning every day just how hard that is. It certainly does appear that, to keep grammie off the gurney, we need to take action now even though the delayed onset of the disease means it takes weeks after every action before we can assess how helpful these actions were. So far, the steps we have taken have mostly told us that this is a very tough sombrero.
It also became crystal clear the moment we started social distancing and shuttering businesses that squashing the sombrero aggressively helps one problem but creates another – the potential devastation of our economy over a relatively short period of time. If the extreme measures put in place over the past few weeks continue for more than a few months, it will hurt a lot. The word economists are using is "depression."
Thankfully, most of us already understand the mixed blessing of squashing the sombrero. We've already watched other countries deal with the health consequences of this rapidly spreading disease. And, the minute our government made us stay home and closed local businesses, we quickly came to understand that many of our actions to fight the disease will also hurt people economically. And, economic pain doesn't just mean one-percenters having to cancel their sailing trips. All walks of American life will be affected.
As if that wasn't enough, the problem is made significantly more complex by the dramatic differences between how coronavirus affects the young vs. old. If this disease weren't killing off baby boomers, I'd be getting ready for Opening Day at Coors Field next week. Everyone under the age of 60 is being asked to bear a large burden to save the lives of those over 60.
Do I hear an "OK, boomer" now? Please?
If there were ever a point in history for the phrase, "There are no easy answers, just difficult questions," this is it. At some point, the economic consequences of strategies for squashing the sombrero will not be worth the cost, but reaching consensus on where that point is and what we hope to achieve by it will not be easy. We need to start having the conversation now.
The President suggested that we start looking for ways to return to normal life in a few weeks. While much of the media has assured us that this was a dumb idea, they are wrong. Given the complexity of solving the coronavirus problem and the closeness of the economic cliff for us all, we need to start having this part of the coronavirus conversation now. There are lots of interesting alternatives for a "return to normal" that go beyond social distancing and closing businesses. How about treating the young, old, and those with existing health conditions differently? How about freeing up the people who have already contracted and recovered from the virus? Lots of options are available and it's time to talk about them.
Yes, we will have to make life and death decisions based upon economic issues. We do that all the time, though we don't like to mention it. Today, we must face it head on. Only by seeing the full complexity of the coronavirus problem can we figure out how to squash the sombrero but not too much.
By virtue of their cleverness, the English have once again proven that they deserve the right to maintain stewardship of our shared language. I say this having spent most of the first three weeks of March in London tracking the outbreak of the coronavirus through an English lens. English media coverage of the crisis was not only more data-based and scientifically illuminating than our overly political blather, it was also more colorful.
My favorite was the language Boris Johnson, England's Prime Minister, chose to describe the health imperative of "flattening the curve" of the outbreak to reduce the shock to our health systems. Nobody wants to see grammie gasping on a gurney because the ventilators were already busy. To get grammie her ventilator, we need to do things to slow down spread of the disease. A mathematician would describe this as, "flattening the curve," which is why mathematicians are not called upon when what we need is compelling rhetoric. Boris, who studied Classics at Oxford, chose to tell the nation that what they needed to do was, "squash the sombrero," speaking metaphorically of the shape of the Coronavirus curve. Boris called upon the British people to put their metaphorical foot on the crown of that sombrero – the high point on the curve – and squash it. Inspirational in a Monty Python sort of way, don't you think?
So, here we are in Boulder doing our bit to squash our own sombrero and we are learning every day just how hard that is. It certainly does appear that, to keep grammie off the gurney, we need to take action now even though the delayed onset of the disease means it takes weeks after every action before we can assess how helpful these actions were. So far, the steps we have taken have mostly told us that this is a very tough sombrero.
It also became crystal clear the moment we started social distancing and shuttering businesses that squashing the sombrero aggressively helps one problem but creates another – the potential devastation of our economy over a relatively short period of time. If the extreme measures put in place over the past few weeks continue for more than a few months, it will hurt a lot. The word economists are using is "depression."
Thankfully, most of us already understand the mixed blessing of squashing the sombrero. We've already watched other countries deal with the health consequences of this rapidly spreading disease. And, the minute our government made us stay home and closed local businesses, we quickly came to understand that many of our actions to fight the disease will also hurt people economically. And, economic pain doesn't just mean one-percenters having to cancel their sailing trips. All walks of American life will be affected.
As if that wasn't enough, the problem is made significantly more complex by the dramatic differences between how coronavirus affects the young vs. old. If this disease weren't killing off baby boomers, I'd be getting ready for Opening Day at Coors Field next week. Everyone under the age of 60 is being asked to bear a large burden to save the lives of those over 60.
Do I hear an "OK, boomer" now? Please?
If there were ever a point in history for the phrase, "There are no easy answers, just difficult questions," this is it. At some point, the economic consequences of strategies for squashing the sombrero will not be worth the cost, but reaching consensus on where that point is and what we hope to achieve by it will not be easy. We need to start having the conversation now.
The President suggested that we start looking for ways to return to normal life in a few weeks. While much of the media has assured us that this was a dumb idea, they are wrong. Given the complexity of solving the coronavirus problem and the closeness of the economic cliff for us all, we need to start having this part of the coronavirus conversation now. There are lots of interesting alternatives for a "return to normal" that go beyond social distancing and closing businesses. How about treating the young, old, and those with existing health conditions differently? How about freeing up the people who have already contracted and recovered from the virus? Lots of options are available and it's time to talk about them.
Yes, we will have to make life and death decisions based upon economic issues. We do that all the time, though we don't like to mention it. Today, we must face it head on. Only by seeing the full complexity of the coronavirus problem can we figure out how to squash the sombrero but not too much.
