The measured doses of long-term optimism here are an interesting contrast to most of the public health messaging and (although I'm not saying this is Gottlieb's intention) I suspect might be helpful for motivating support for difficult medium-term measures.
There's also a tone of empathy here that IMO is sometimes lacking.
Basically "Yeah, this kind of sucks. But we are going to be able to get *some* things back in the medium term. And the sacrifices will help us get back to normal in the long term, which isn't that far away."
Basically "Yeah, this kind of sucks. But we are going to be able to get *some* things back in the medium term. And the sacrifices will help us get back to normal in the long term, which isn't that far away."
Contrast that with "because our leadership is so incompetent and you're all so selfish and impatient, the US is totally screwed," which is the theme of a lot of what you hear these days. Even if it's right* it's not exactly very motivating.
Indeed, there's some evidence that fatalism can reduce social distancing, etc. nber.org/papers/w27245.…
* Is it right? The critique of leadership is right IMO, especially if you're taking about the White House (states are more of a mixed bag). The rest of it, I don't know.
* Is it right? The critique of leadership is right IMO, especially if you're taking about the White House (states are more of a mixed bag). The rest of it, I don't know.
