Seeing these full-color photos from Mars as we officially clear 500,000 US COVID fatalities is a lot to process. We can do things sooooo well, but also sooooooo badly.
Look, this isn't an argument to cut NASA's budget. Relative to the cost of COVID, you could zero out NASA and not save any lives. And nothing prevents the government from just spending more in a crisis.
With NASA, Trump appointed relatively competent and nonpartisan folks, and while they made some bad calls for the long term plans of NASA, the project lifecycle spans multiple presidents. So long as the politicians don't try to interfere, things work out well.
The federal government also has public health people who are as competent and skilled as NASA folks are in their domain. But instead of staying out of the way, shoveling money and resources at them, and letting them work, Trump decided to run everything from the White House.
The difference in approach and in outcomes couldn't be more stark. It's still taking time to turn that course, and congressional Republicans are slowing down the whole "shovel money at the experts" part of the plan. But we're already seeing a change for the better.
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