TODAY IN TECHNOCRATIC FOLLIES.

Andrew Cuomo, serial screwup, is the gift that never stops giving.  "He's governing a state of more than 19 million people. He's trying to contain a COVID-19 outbreak. He's classifying which foods are substantial enough for a meal."  A bar that has the nerve to sell hot wings in order to qualify as a restaurant, and thus be allowed to stay open under the latest set of ukases from Prince Andrew, is engaging in a subterfuge to evade Proper Order.  That's clearly Twitchy material.  "Eating a sandwich will keep you from getting the coronavirus, but chicken wings will not."  The ukase is not playing well in Buffalo, or with the chains that offer wings and beer to go with all the televised sports.

That might all be in good fun, but for the fact that the governor made a series of decisions based on bad modelling.

In light of these findings, it’s difficult to determine which is more of an affront to the families of the thousands upon thousands of victims of New York State’s handling of COVID-19. Is it the shameless self-aggrandizing and celebration by Cuomo, whose policies led to the devastation of the elderly in long-term care facilities? Is it Dr. Anthony Fauci’s commendation of those policies? Or is it the legal protection of the entities that abetted such widespread demise?

Ultimately, there is plenty of blame to go around. But one thing is certain: the deep human costs of this virus and its corresponding policies have been exacerbated by blind hubris and unfounded pride––which, to no small extent, saw their expression in the conceit of rule by models. Though it might be too little too late, diligent reflection and readjustment in future pandemic combat efforts will be the only way to honor those who were lost so unnecessarily.

With the ever-more Maoist and ever-more desperate mandarins in Pekin casting about for new plagues to let loose on the world, that reflection and readjustment ought be top of mind.