Coronavirus bungling and plays for new government power risk major unrest

In just one week the Covid-19 mess has erupted from toilet paper disappearing to sporadic food shortages, all of California being ordered to stay at home, Md Gov Hogan, closing parks (after defiant and possibly safe mass cookouts) and many business, and French police being deployed against wholesale defiance of beach closures. There has even been talk of declaring martial law in California.

On top of all else, Maryland is one of six states that have postponed their 2020 primary elections. If the coronavirus is still circulating or comes.roaring back in October, Trump may have an opportunity to indefinately postpone.the general election. This will deny the public any input into whether to let his bungling "leadership" continue. Trump once reportedly said "President for Life-I'll have tp try that," now he may be able to exploit the virus to play for exactly that.

With governments including in the US demanding radical new powers and people in many places defying extreme.social controls, there is now the real possibility that governmental mishandling of this situation could detonate major social unrest on top of a historic pandemic, followed by economic effects now being compared to the Great Depression. We could face the equivalents of the 1918 flu, the 1929-WWII Great Depression, and ugly 1930's Europe style politics all at once. Already we've heard bigoted statements from Trump blaming "the Chinese" and by extension Asians in general for the virus.

People have a choice to make as a group: Shitcan almost all personal freedom for months and then have the government try to keep those new powers forever, or accept possibly ten times as many sick and/or dead to prevent all of their lives from being ruined.

Not everyone has to make the same choice as anyone can unilaterally shelter in place if safe grocery access (possibly the main vector now) can be arranged.

The main killer if mass social quarantines are rejected isn't more cases, as they will come anyway.This is forecast to eventually infect over half the population anyway in worst case estimates, and a great many in all estimates. Rather, it's having all the cases at once in a narrow spike. That means hospitals can't handle it and risks for everyone rise to the same level as for those with zero access to medical care.

There is also huge risk in letting government have these powers, as rhey will want to keep them forever. Shelter in place no, but probably curfews anytime a controversy erupts, "quarantining" social unrest like Black Lives Matter using laws written for the virus, etc. Also economy will be worse and some of the lives saved by quarantine are lost anyway to starvation and/or other deseases. Jesse has called the panic more dangerous than the virus and I think he is right.

There are NO good answers, rather people have to decide what is "bad" and what is "worse." As for Trump,every time he opens his mouth the stocks plunge and panic buying spreads. Now states are being asked NOT to report unemployement statistics!

No matter how anyone feels on whether to.accept an authoritarian government or more deaths, Trump should not be asked for.advice. More and more considee him unfit to command in this sort of emergency. With Trump we could easily get both the community-wide quarantines (and curfews etc) and huge death rates at the same time. This would be followed by a permanent authoritarian government commanding a wrecked.economy.