We must admit that many people in the well-educated middle classes can easily work from home (because we have fake jobs that consist of typing or talking) and have a hard time understanding the reality of people whose lives quickly become precarious, even dangerous, without work
This means that in sum, the media / political class tends to under-appreciate the need to immediately provide assistance to every single person affected by social distancing mandates. That is, the material assistance and the mandates have to start at the exact same time.
If there is a lag (as there is now) the issue can become polarized, with one side tending more towards "safety" and the other towards "the economy" - that binary is totally false, since without safety, the economy collapses anyways. The solution is help - immediate, full help.
It works the other way, too. You don't get safety for long if you shut down the economy. Without meaningful assistance, people start to die. Unfortunately that's just how our system is set up. Can't pause growth without killing people. Seem imperfect to me, but it is what it is
