Easy for you to say, Mike

Saturday’s Mike Myer column continued the local Ogden papers’ push to end the coronavirus closures. “Shutdowns Cost Lives, Too” describes what Myer considers the gloomy state of affairs that will result from the “nanny-state’s” shutting of the economy: businesses permanently closed, high unemployment, suicides, and the “deadliness of hopelessness.”

This has been Ogden's push on the shutdown and to that end Ogden regularly suggests that Americans support ending the shutdown (or, at the least, they ought to). If you do any research, however, that conclusion is quickly dispelled. For instance, last Friday, Atlantic staff writer David H. Graham examined a number of polls and concluded:

. . . . the American public is astonishingly united in its support for caution in the face of pandemic, despite the existing partisan divide, and despite the efforts of Trump and others to inflame it—though the most recent polling shows some indications of growing partisan splits. Americans are also consistent in their views across regions and states, defying the typical partisan geography of the nation.

Since the coronavirus has changed many workplaces, I assume that the editor of Wheeling's Ogden papers does a great deal of his job from the safety and comfort of his home. As the lockdown is lifted and bars and restaurants open, perhaps Myer could, for a couple of days, wait on tables or tend bar, or, for that matter work any job that brings him in close-contact with other people. Would he then be as likely to support ending the shutdown? The Pew Research Center recently asked these former job holders what they thought:

If you think about it, the result is not that surprising. Unfortunately, it is a lot easier to tell people what to do when it is not your life on the line.

Sweden

Sweden, Ogden’s favorite country (via three syndicated columns) ever since they didn’t close-up their country as most of Europe did, continues to have problems with the virus. Here’s a couple of very recent reports that continue that analysis:

From France 24:

Sweden’s Covid-19 strategy has caused an ‘amplification of the epidemic’

From The New York Times:

Sweden Stayed Open. A Deadly Month Shows the Risks.

From The Business Insider:

Americans calling for herd immunity should look at Sweden's coronavirus experiment to see why it won't work

Don’t worry, we’ll probably see another Town Hall columnist telling us how we can learn from Sweden later this week.

Hillary Clinton, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, and now, Governor Gretchen Whitmer: The Wheeling News-Register appears to have a problem with strong, assertive women

From today’s Wheeling News-Register: