A Scott Gottlieb Resource

I'm sure many readers are familiar with Dr. Scott Gottlieb. Gottlieb's expertise is obviously in the medical field, but his bachelor's degree was in Economics, so he probably has a far better understanding of economic related issues than most doctors. He has also had extensive experience working in the federal medical bureaucracy. Most recently he was FDA commissioner for the first two years of the Trump administration, and he's currently a resident fellow at the libertarian oriented American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He's unlikely to be a NeverTrump.

A lot of people, including myself, are pondering the question of how soon and how safely we can "reopen" the country, to try to mitigate the damage to the economy and to the social fabric more generally. Gottlieb at AEI has come up with a detailed proposal in that regard. That's important, because he's likely to have the ear of influential legislators as well as officials in the Executive Branch--including the White House. He's been out and around discussing his proposal, trying to drum up interest and discussion.

I haven't read it all. I do know that Gottlieb is recommending a state by state approach--as each state fulfills certain conditions to "reopen" they will be evaluated separately. So it's not an "all or nothing" approach. I think that type of flexibility is highly desirable and would even like to see whether that approach could be extended to even more flexible geo-political agglomerations--for example, multiple country areas extending across state lines. Obviously that would involve administrative difficulties, but it's a thought.

With regard to the state by state approach I will note one point of disagreement I have with Gottlieb (that I'm aware of). He states that the virus has achieved "community spread" (as opposed to socially localized outbreaks) in ALL state. I'm at least skeptical of that, even though Gottlieb has almost incalculably more information at his disposal.

On the other hand, one point that I'm very pleased to learn that he agrees with me on--and is part of why I doubt that "community spread" is a nationwide reality--is that he believes that we will learn that only a very small percent of the population has even been exposed to the virus. The number he gives as an upper range is only 5%. In other words, not even within shouting range of the 40-60% we'd need to achieve any meaningful herd immunity.

So, to begin, if you want to keep tabs on Gottlieb, this is his Twitter feed: