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Dr. Amesh Adalja Unmasks the Political Overlords Who Ignore the Medical Principle of Do No Harm.

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Poetic Justice Warrior Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, is one voice of reason helping Americans perceive the reality of the Wuhan virus fiasco. This is essential to forming ideas about personal behavior and public policy that will help everyone live their lives with the purpose we choose. Not the infantile one being coerced by political forces.

Check Your Premises

The primary goal of public policy experts is something we have heard ad nauseum. As Hunter Hastings explained, “These mathematical technicians are the product of teaching STEM, and not developing character or accountability. We’ve abandoned civilized thinking in order to flatten the curve.” Dr. Adalja explains this policy as,

Flattening the curve was never about saving lives. It was preventing excess deaths, trying to spread out the same number of cases over a longer period of time. This is really about hospital capacity.

Today, everyone seems to be an expert on it, associating public policy with saving lives. Dr. Adalja tells us that is only true where,

There are hot spots that would have been a disaster. Hospitals in New York City would have collapsed. Focus on population density, hospital capacity, and geographic area to keep cases below where hospitals can handle them.

There are at least two problems with hospital capacity groupthink. The infamous curve (cases of infection that require hospitalization over time) is bisected twice by the horizontal line that represents hospital capacity. The presumption is that this line has a slope of zero. In economic terms, it means that supply is not elastic, that capacity does not respond to changes in demand.

Hospitals are not run by closed minds; they could quickly anticipate the need. Medical equipment manufacturers are not incapable, they could be doing what entrepreneurs instinctively do. The presumption is that both are impotent without guidance from their omniscient government overlords. The other problem is worse: “flattening the curve” deflects attention away from the real problem – crippling health care regulations.

The Package Deal

Far too many governors and health department officials have mandated capricious, supply-side economic lockdowns, for the public good. Wittingly or not, they merely provide cover for a bloated system of administrative layers – politics superseding reason.

Fortunately, the reality of the Wuhan virus is not lost on anyone. While most coronaviruses are limited to animals, when they infect people, it is serious business. There are no vaccines. In a recent interview on the Yaron Brook Show, Dr. Adalja explained the case mortality rate is now estimated to be 0.5%. This is five times greater than a typical flu virus, and that’s a big deal. It is theoretically possible that nearly everyone could become infected, and in a country of 300 million people, that would equate to nearly 1.5 million deaths.

What Dr. Adalja does is distinguish between the reality of macro statistics and public policy based on reason. Regarding infections,

Mutations have no functional significance. Hospitalization is a function of who it is infecting. Diabetes, obesity, and hypertension are common attributes. The host is what drives hospitalization. It has to do with comorbidities and where they are.

What we have are the variables of population density, hospital capacity, geographic area, infection rate, and patient health. The only thing missing is preparedness. Despite the billions spent for the World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, and hundreds of health departments across the country, we get slogans like “flatten the curve” and “we’re all in this together.” Except the self-proclaimed public servants. Their salaries and benefits are essential. To them.

Knowing the attributes of the Wuhan virus, and that the health care system is corrupted by politics, is essential for understanding the underlying purpose of these slogans. Flatten the curve and we’re all in this together are anti-concepts, meaning they replace a rational conversation about the merits of an idea.

The Price of Submission

As individualists, we actively contribute and cooperate for each other’s well being, within reason. When the purpose becomes political, and you question the premises of flattening the curve, it means you want people to die! Two anti-concepts in a package deal! What could go wrong? Thirty million unemployment claims? A million small businesses ruined? Mass hospital lay-offs? Fools deciding what is essential based on emotion, politics, and guilt? Do no harm? As Dr. Adalja has repeated,

This is not a containable virus. We knew in January it had long escaped China, yet we had silly restrictions on testing. We could have avoided a lot of the shutdowns. There is no excuse for not doing this right.

But how do we do this right if it’s a highly contagious virus we’ve never seen before? Even Dr. Adalja claims that the outbreaks are asynchronous, meaning there are many little outbreaks, and the timing and rate of infection are not predictable.

We’ve been talking about this for years and years, writing report after report. This virus isn’t going anywhere. We will be dealing with it for at least two more years. We need to find the right balance of controlling the virus and keeping the economy functioning.

Dr. Adalja mentions Taiwan as a great example. They were aggressive with testing, but Taiwan’s preparedness is not being talked about because they are not a member of the World Health Organization. Instead, they were doing something right, they were respecting individual rights. Of course, island nations like Taiwan, Singapore, and New Zealand have their own identity, “they are really good at infectious diseases because they have this natural barrier.” They used reason to design their customized response. Singapore did not close schools.

Can We Get Away With It

The significant effect of the lockdown is to flatten the livelihoods of millions of Americans, and this is doing emotional damage. In Sweden, they allowed the virus limited space, and there were deaths, but economic freedom was maintained. Population density, hospital capacity, geographic area, infection rate, and patient health were the policy targets. In America, Dr. Adalja reflects,

As soon as you peel back social distancing, the cases are going to go up. We expect that. The CDC is run by scientists who are adept and expert people, yet they are constrained by their environment. There are false alternatives all over the place, it has become politicized.

Fortunately, our government overlords thought of this and have a prescription – face masks! The accepted guidance is they will reduce the spread, whether infecting others or becoming infected, and remind users not to touch their face. But do they? Dr. Adalja’s position is,

I’m not a fan of the public wearing masks if they’re not sick. There’s not much benefit, especially home made masks that cause them to touch their face to adjust. There’s no strong evidence. Now, it’s the price we have to pay to make everybody feel good.

When asked how much of public policy decisions are being influenced by politics, economics or science, Dr. Adalja explained that,

Unfortunately, politics has poisoned the science. Depending on the state, it’s “what can the governor get away with.” In Pennsylvania, 25,000 exemptions have been granted for non-essential businesses. It’s a cottage industry.

As social justice would have it, the latest cottage industry is face masks, and their entrepreneurs are adding great value. Under the morality of good intentions, they are inclusive, their efficacy is perfect on beaches and bike trails, and they conform to the virtue of signaling.

 

 

 

 

 

Crisis and Leviathan is Why We Need Modern Poetic Justice Warriors Like Robert Higgs

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Defense Production Act Coordinator Peter Navarro claimed during a live TV interview on March 29th that “we know exactly what we need” to reduce the spread of the Wuhan Virus and treat infected Americans. He continued, “We have to expand and repurpose our industrial base.” It gets even better, “We have to make sure we’re able to make the medicines we need, the medical equipment, and the supplies. That’s going to create millions of jobs for this country.”

Superficially, this makes sense. After all, the shallow surface is where most public discourse takes place, thanks to compulsory progressive education and national media nitwits. As political economist and Poetic Justice Warrior Robert Higgs explains in his vital 1987 book Crisis and Leviathan,

The most important legacy of the New Deal is the now-dominant ideology of the mixed economy, which holds that the government is an immensely useful means for achieving one’s private aspirations. That one’s resort to this reservoir of benefits is perfectly legitimate.

In the spirit of the public good, it would he helpful to give Navarro’s comments some depth. Beginning with, “we know exactly what we need,” is typical collectivist fantasy. With all due respect, he was speciously correct – for the few seconds prior to the next segment of the broadcast. It featured a new 3D printed ventilator being developed independently at Rice University. While the proper use of ventilators is very complex, this one will cost $300 to produce compared to $10,000 for Navarro’s government approved machines.

To “repurpose our industrial base” is simply authoritarian economic planning, right wing and left wing. Its only a matter of degree. Navarro’s purpose is to “make sure the components are there when we need them.” This sounds good to passive minds, but who or what is “we?”

To the progressively schooled listener it means “the public good.” To active minds, it is evidence of coercive government overreach. The tactic is merely bucolic and ambiguous language to mask the primary purpose of concentrated decision making. As Higgs continues,

To take – indirectly if not directly – other people’s property for one’s own benefit is now considered morally impeccable, provided that the taking is effected though the medium of the government.

Yet Navarro’s poorly trained economic mind claims omniscience over the manufacture and distribution of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and protective gear for health care professionals. Never mind that it is in short supply because of legacy government intrusion in nearly every aspect of American health care finance and delivery. Combined, they show little regard for specialization, division of labor, and price discovery that are fundamental achievements of Western civilization.

As Higgs explains in his 2002 essay titled The Rise of the West,

The individualism of Western culture, and the political fragmentation of the European peoples in the high Middle Ages, fostered the institutional and technological experimentation by which entrepreneurs could discover how to make labor and capital more productive.

“Going to create millions of jobs” denies reality, government can only create government jobs or get out of the way. Yet this phrase is prized by both left-wing and right-wing political minds, and disregards the real job creators. Economic minds understand employment as Say’s Law, or the Law of Markets – production creates its own demand. It is the foundation of all rational economic theory, and Higgs’ example of economic reality,

Europe’s governments that made life difficult for traders tended to lose their business, and hence a tax base, to competing jurisdictions. Such losses motivated rulers to curb their predation and to allow businessmen room to maneuver.

As illustrated by the Atlas Society, the novel contagion fomented in bat caves in China, ferried to Wuhan’s wet markets, festered in human hosts, and was fostered by its ultimate guardian – the paranoia of China’s totalitarian regime. While Western civilization is built on the solid footings of the scientific method (reason), free markets (purpose), and self-creation (pride); for the East, not so much. As Higgs relates,

In contrast to Europe, businessmen in China suffered an inescapable clampdown. In the Islamic world, an imperial government failed to protect private-property rights. The Soviet empire likewise embraced the imposition of one big bad idea, central economic planning.

In today’s 21st century America, the Crisis is the Wuhan Virus, and the Leviathan is our political, media, and education institutions. However, it’s different this time. Pretend for a second that you’ve never heard that before. During the previous one hundred years, the Leviathan created economic crisis and prescribed economic solutions rooted in the Keynesian myth of aggregate demand, supported by its nonexistent multiplier effect.

Today however, the solution for the epidemic includes castration of supply-side of economic activity. You know, the side that prevents poverty, despair, and death. This stark reality is deeper than a health crisis solved by urgent “flattening the curve” public policy, social distancing, and hygiene. It is the suspension of Constitutional rights and human life-sustaining purpose.

What’s disturbing is the willingness of so many people to accept the repeal of their personal liberties based on projections using unreliable data sets. As Robert Higgs observed,

Few Americans know much about the history of Argentina or Venezuela. But if they wish to know how the people of the USA are ruining their own country, all they have to do is look around themselves, including, in most cases, looking in the mirror.

Media pundits are also vulnerable. Considered predominately right-wing, FOX News is pushing massive government spending to replace individual livelihoods by using the left’s own rationale for social justice: “through no fault of their own.” On the surface, this makes sense because of the government forced shutdown, but ignores the deeper economic and philosophical damage, and merely robs from past and future productivity.

A market’s price discovery mechanism is too complex to mess with, and the longer people are denied the freedom to produce, the longer it will take to rebuild supply chains. The emotional and financial damage to millions of Americans will be inestimable, and is being pumped by shows like CBS 60 Minutes who seem to take pleasure in the demise of the West. In contrast, local news outlets are reporting stories of civil disobedience in their medical and business communities against FDA hegemony, and having wonderful outcomes.

As poetic justice would have it, this pandemic is a lesson in the proper role of government for defending individuals from the clear and present danger of epidemic disease. It is also shining a bright light on the superiority of free-market health care delivery, the generosity of a society rooted in personal liberty, and the ability of minds unleashed by economic freedom to solve any problem. Here, Higgs invokes the combined genius of Enlightenment philosopher John Locke and Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises,

Like all who inherit the Lockean tradition, Mises believed that a strong but limited government, far from suffocating its citizens, allows them to be productive and free.

The popular Western interpretation of ‘crisis’ in the Chinese language means opportunity. Will the breakdown of health care regulations wake America up to their disastrous effects, or we will ratchet up a more powerful Leviathan? Teacher Lisa VanDamme gives us the principled answer, “Extensive knowledge of the consequences of history’s ideas and actions; of the great discoveries of science and what they made possible. These are the raw material from which rational moral principles are drawn.” As Poetic Justice Warrior Robert Higgs advises,

The two issues call forth moral considerations. They involve not questions of what is technically better or worse. Rather, they involve good and evil. Those who propose to deal pragmatically with such questions are doomed to fail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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