The View from Right Field

I Don’t Like Joe Biden and I’m Wearing a Mask. Here’s Why.

Actually, I’m not going to talk about why I don’t like Joe Biden.  And it’s not that I don’t like President Biden.  He seems like a nice person – unlike his predecessor.  It’s just that I don’t like his policies.  It’s important to note that the fact I don’t like his policies doesn’t mean I liked his predecessor’s policies.  You can dislike the policies of both of them, and I did/do.

What I am going to talk about is why I wear a mask when I go into stores, even though I am fully vaccinated.  Tim Harford explained it well in his column in the FT Weekend yesterday:

Covid-19, Vaccines, and Systemic Racism

An article in The Washington Post notes the difficulty Washington, D.C., is having in getting younger Blacks vaccinated.  According to the article, young Blacks worry about side effects from the vaccine.  Also, some “are wary of the medical establishment" or don’t think they will get a severe case.

In addition, according to Ankoor Shah, the head of the city’s vaccine program:

“The solution is not only some program or initiative.  I think these are systematic and systemic and historical, structural problems that have happened for hundreds of years.  Institutional and structural racism that’s embedded through all parts of our society is making itself known.”

If that’s true, then it’s hopeless.  It’s already too late for this pandemic and maybe the next one, too.  I don’t know what the solution is.

What About That Covid-19 Lab Leak Theory?

Nothing has been proven yet with respect to the origins of Covid-19.  The theory that Covid-19 might have leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, is only one possibility.  Much more research and investigation need to be done.  We don’t know yet.

Except, we do know.  We know that, instead of the lab leak theory being so absolutely false that Facebook wouldn’t even let it be mentioned and would take down posts that talked about it, it’s now a possibility.¹  It’s definitely not for sure.  But it is, apparently, something that could have happened.  Which means we know what we need to do.

Arsenal of Democracy Then. Vaccine Maker of the World Now.

Demand for vaccines is dropping around the United States.  States are telling the federal government they don’t need their full share.  If we don’t have more vaccines than we need now, we will soon.  So here is an idea of what to do with the extra doses we will have: Send them around the world to the people and countries that need them.

Instead of making a show of supporting a waiver of patent rights in vaccines, something that will take months to negotiate with other countries and months more before companies can start manufacturing vaccines they have never made before, why don’t we make them for the world ourselves?  We can allow American companies to export vaccines.  And for poor countries, we can buy them from American manufacturers and give them to those who can’t afford them.¹

Waiving IP for Vaccines – Or Actually Doing Good

The Biden administration has, perhaps not surprisingly, agreed to support a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines.  It sounds good on the surface, but I can’t help but wonder if the better solution might be to just pay Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to make as many doses as they can as quickly as they can.  They know how to make these vaccines.  They have the best idea on how to ramp up production.  Instead of giving away IP to people and companies who may or may not know how to make these vaccines, why not just buy more doses from the people who do know how to make them. 

The United States could volunteer to pay the costs.¹  The total cost would probably disappear in the rounding with all of the programs the Biden administration is already proposing.  And giving away vaccines would be a great foreign policy move.  Russia can’t afford to do it, and China doesn’t have vaccines that work as well as these.  But we do can it.  We can help the world.  And that’s something you do when you can.

Spending Lots; Doing a Little Good

Nancy Pelosi famously¹ said of Obamacare that you had to pass it to see what was in it.  It appears that was true of Joe Biden’s first big Covid relief bill, too.  In January, I said this about President Biden’s proposed plan in a post entitled “Covid-19 Relief Ought to Be More Than Just Throwing Money Around Randomly”:

“A properly-targeted pandemic relief program wouldn’t waste money by giving it to people who don’t need help.  If we target the help where it is needed, there will be more money for the people who actually need help.  It’s not a matter of cutting costs; it’s a matter of having enough money to help those who really need it.”

The US Economy Is On a Path To Do Fine – As Long As

Per an article in yesterday’s Financial Times¹:

“Most advanced countries will emerge from the coronavirus crisis with little lasting damage, thanks to relatively rapid rollout of vaccines and a willingness to increase sharply spending and borrowing, according to the I[nternational] M[onetary] [F]und. …

The fund was bullish about prospects of a rapid US recovery without inflationary pressures.  [IMF chief economist Gita] Gopinath said: ‘The US is really the only large economy whose {economic output} for 2022 is projected to exceed what it would have been in the absence of this pandemic.’”

“A World of Our Own” – A Song for Lockdown

I wish I had found this 1965 song by The Seekers last year.  It would have been perfect for our stay-at-home orders.  Let’s hope we don’t need it this year.

UPDATE (3/24/21 9:20 am): To show how right this song would have been for lockdown, here are the first two verses:

Will Disneyland Be Opening Before Some Schools?

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that, because of California’s easing of Covid-19 restrictions, The Happiest Place on Earth^® could be opening next month, on a reduced-capacity basis, after being closed for almost a year.  The union that represents some of the workers at Disneyland, who have been on furlough or out of a job since the park closed, said the workers “are excited to go back to work to provide Californians with a bit more magic in their lives.”¹

An interesting contrast, perhaps, to the things being said by many teachers unions around the country, but then not getting paid for almost a year can tend to give one a different outlook.  One might almost be tempted to say that, while the Disney workers want to be able to get back and act like Goofy¹ again, the leaders of some teachers unions have been acting goofy for a long time.
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¹ Disney World, in Florida, has been operating on a reduced-capacity basis, since July.
²  And Mickey and Minnie and Donald.

Vaccinated. What Now? A Follow-Up

On February 11, I asked, in a post entitled “What’s Next for the Virus? Shots, Restrictions, and Masks”:

“Once we get to that point, i.e., when there is enough vaccine for everybody, what does that mean about all the restrictions we have been living under?  What about social distancing?  Limits on restaurants?  Plays and concerts and sports?  Ultimately, what about masks?”

The Chicago Tribune had an article in Sunday’s paper: “After the second dose of vaccine, what’s next?”  People want to start doing things.  That’s one the reasons they are getting the vaccine, but the experts in the article seemed to say things won’t change that much: