That's beginning to resemble an L-as-in-Loser -shaped "recovery." Talk about flattening the curve, huh? That sucker has been straight-lined D-as-in-Dead since October. Of course, it is no recovery at all, 11 months later we are 9.9M jobs short of recovery. The recovery has been flattened like a pancake by COVID-19.
We, all of us, idiots, economists, health experts, have known all along that this is not two separate problems, it is the same problem with two faces, and we have also known all along what the solution is: flat-line the epidemic and you'll get your V. I dare say, employeds and un-s, there have never been two existential threats, in actuality one, so EZ to defeat: make it safe to go back to work. And yet we haven't.
Here my focus on Deaths and criticism of President Biden is shortsighted. Yes, death is different, but even if Biden prioritized preventing Deaths uber alles--more respirators? more remdesivir?--those on death's door haven't worked in awhile, and they ain't goin' back to work. 46-1 Killed 401k Americans, he was the Manslaughter-in-Chief. Biden has Killed almost 55k more in just over two weeks! But the more important numbers for the future health of Americans, and the present health of the U.S. economy, are these: 22.2M and 4.4M, the numbers infected with the virus under each man. The total is 8.1% of the entire population of the U.S. That is why the unemployment rate is 6.3%; that is why we are still 9.9M jobs away from recovery. And that is why President Biden is speeding distribution of vaccines. Only that, masks and social distancing inhibit a full return to economic activity, only vaccination can kill this thing and turn the economy from an L to a V.
