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I can only speak directly to what I have seen in Chicago, and the outlook is bleak. Restaurants, bars, movie theatres, nightclubs, schools mostly closed already, and another statewide lockdown order almost certain to be announced soon. No outdoor sporting events, street festivals, or concerts during the summer. Many more people unemployed, and many facing eviction at some point. Food pantries over-stretched, and I'm not sure if any homeless shelters are even operating now. Restrictions on both public and private gatherings, and travel. At least alot of people (but not all) are dutifully wearing their masks, even when they are walking alone outside or riding a bicycle.

The more these insane policies fail, the more the authorities double down on them. COVID-19 death rates are actually falling despite this (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/10/20/925441975/studies-p...), yet government and mass media are conditioning us to believe that this is an existential threat that justifies any amount of harm the State chooses to inflict on us, any level of intrusive control over our lives.

At the risk of being called a Qanon conspiracy theorist (I don't even know what Qanon is - I've never looked it up), I have to say that, in terms of potential social responses to this pandemic, the strategy outlined in the Great Barrington Declaration (yes, I know it's sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, but I'm more interested in what the document actually says) seems far more practical and humane: encourage those most at risk of serious complications or death from Covid-19 (the elderly, people with pre-existing medical conditions) to shelter in place, and provide them with all the resources they need to do so. The less vulnerable groups in the population would be allowed to go about their daily lives unhindered. Infection rates would rise dramatically, and there would probably be an increase in the total number of deaths (although not, perhaps, the death rate), but the percentage of those with immunity to the virus would eventually rise to a level that would make it safe for the more at-risk groups to resume their normal lives, as well.