Tuesday Tweets -- the plot twist we didn't see coming

Though, in our defense, it was one of those logic defying twists.




Over the weekend, we started hearing indications of a policy shift.

Every group of doomed idiots in countless horror movies had a better plan than this. https://t.co/mUXl5LGTh6

— Richard Roeper (@RichardERoeper) March 23, 2020

Trump supporters, who had only recently made the jump from hoax to Chinese plot, fell into line (you really have to listen to this).

What's extraordinary here is the framing. "We can't lose our whole country" https://t.co/R0e309JvcF

— Mark Palko (@MarkPalko1) March 24, 2020

Interestingly, in China people have expressed similar pride in the self-sacrifice they’ve undertaken during the coronavirus pandemic — but that sacrifice was to self-quarantine for weeks, not to return to business as usual.

— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) March 24, 2020

Researchers pointed out the potential health care disaster.

In last 24 hrs there've been prominent US voices calling for a stop to social distancing, citing rationale that they're worse than impact of COVID itself. It’s worth looking very closely at that claim, where we are in US COVID epidemic and what happens if we stop. 1/x

— Tom Inglesby (@T_Inglesby) March 23, 2020

Even sane conservatives pointed out that less containment might cause even more damage to the economy.

The truly soul-shaking thing about it is nobody has the evidence they'd need to be justified in the belief that easing up on containment to keep the economy humming now won't just make the economy even worse later, amidst the mass death. But it's a gamble they're willing to take?

— Will Wilkinson 🌐 (@willwilkinson) March 24, 2020

There is no functioning economy unless we control the virus.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 23, 2020

While others pointed out that easing the lock down wasn't really Trump's call.

I don’t really understand this discourse around Trump and reopening the economy ... the federal government didn’t order anything closed in the first place, it’s all state/local.

His contribution has been spreading misinformation and foot-dragging on boosting PPE production.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 23, 2020

 
Nor does this seem like a policy that will go over big with the base.

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