Very #unpopularOpinion:

The idea that every movement in COVID numbers was the result of an identifiable set collective moral choices that could be managed through policy has led us into a horrifying moral reality in which we are collectively responsible for sickness and death

Every week since March, people have been trying to interpret the latest week of COVID data in light of some narrative that neatly explains things based on human interaction, policy implementation, or easily controlled variables

That's how so many people got this idea that NY got hit so bad that they were out of the woods due to herd immunity.

All through the summer, their numbers were low. Surely there had to be an identifiable human agency reason behind this!

But... maybe not.

Since May, people have looked at a COVID surge in an area and then go back 3-6 weeks and blame whatever was happening at that time on the surge.

In many cases 2 regions were doing the EXACT same things & one saw a surge & another didn't & people assigned blame accordingly

This vision of blame is actually one of secret helplessness

We *have* to blame people b/c the alternative is that maybe we actually can't control this thing

A lot of us have a need to believe we can control it, so we have a need to assign blame for the lack of control