People who wail that lives are too precious to risk are ridiculously naive. By that logic, driving should not be tolerated, swimming pools and ski slopes should be closed, etc.
But it's very reasonable to argue that more caution is warranted when the danger triggers an unknown amount of additional danger rather than following the statistics of independent events, such as a new, infectious disease vs ongoing traffic fatalities. But the risk of putting a plastic bag over the head of an economy and keeping it there until you're sure all the germs are gone is also an unknown risk of cascading danger. Historically, infectious diseases and economic chaos have both had catastrophic social consequences.
We know more now about the features of this pandemic than we knew two months ago, more (not all but more) about how much it spreads and what happens when it does, but we don't know any more about the economic risks.
The same precautionary principle that grants disease control priority over traffic fatalities because of unknown risk of contagion now argues for an even higher priority for getting the bag off the head of the economy sooner.
But it's very reasonable to argue that more caution is warranted when the danger triggers an unknown amount of additional danger rather than following the statistics of independent events, such as a new, infectious disease vs ongoing traffic fatalities. But the risk of putting a plastic bag over the head of an economy and keeping it there until you're sure all the germs are gone is also an unknown risk of cascading danger. Historically, infectious diseases and economic chaos have both had catastrophic social consequences.
We know more now about the features of this pandemic than we knew two months ago, more (not all but more) about how much it spreads and what happens when it does, but we don't know any more about the economic risks.
The same precautionary principle that grants disease control priority over traffic fatalities because of unknown risk of contagion now argues for an even higher priority for getting the bag off the head of the economy sooner.