My views on Covid Today  

Never flown a 214! Looks like a pretty bad ass helicopter. Used to enjoy flyign the B3 and L3 for the news back in the day. Wish the 429 was granted the MGW increase so it could be used for Medevac.

That said, we will always be able to find examples of government inefficiencies. I've seen some disasters happen that just were beyond words. Not only here, but in governments in other parts of the world. 

I'll never forget...I was on an African Safari a few months ago (I do nature photography for fun). We went to go pay our park fees and two government employees were sitting there doing ZILCH. When the three of us asked to pay, they said "You can pay at the base camp if you want". The tour guide was like, "Well, we're here now, why don't we just pay here". They didn't want to be interrupted.

Yes, this kind of mentality exists with some employees, not only government employees...

That said, imagine Air Traffic Control or the FDA was on a state by state basis? That would be an absolute disaster. There are some things that are better to be managed on a federal basis (like the military, FAA, FDA, CIA, NSA, etc) and others that I agree, should be left to the state.

There are benefits to economies of scale and centralized management in many, but not all instances. The response to covid, being uniform and attempts towards lack of ambiguity are key so that a common and consistent message goes across the airwaves...

Now, as far as PPE, that's up for discussion. As far as vaccines, I prefer that to be on the national level.

btw, how have you and your family been with Covid? 1/5th of the people I know in New Jersey have gotten covid, or so it seems. Luckily everybody I know was pretty mild (they were all vaxxed).

The death rate in New Jersey may had been high in the beginning, in part because it is the most densely populated state in the nation, its proximity to NYC, which was the hub for the most cases coming ino the country. Once the CDC changed the guidelines and recommended masks, their numbers dropped.

I guess that's to say that I'm a trends guy. I look at trends....not a singular point in time. I look to see, in the long-run, what worked... In the beginning, we are in information gathering mode. As we gather data, we forumlate a strategy, apply it, then re-measure and re-assess.