Moving the Goalposts, Bending the Curve

Why do we need to stay 6 feet away from each other and wear masks?  When did both become a thing?  Because it certainly wasn't a thing during the first few months.

People are getting crazy about the 'rona.

What should I make of this comment?

"By staying home and practicing physical distancing, you’re helping bend the curve," California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Sonia Y. Angell tweeted when announcing the latest numbers on Tuesday.

What does "bend the curve" mean?  It used to mean "buy time for hospitals to prepare for an influx of patients", but now it seems to mean "panic about the virus, whether it kills anyone or not, until there's a vaccine." Is Dr. Angell just using a trite phrase without even thinking about what she means?  Because here in California, it doesn't seem that the first "bend the curve" definition has any meaning anymore.

I've been commenting on this topic for months now:

How did we go from “flatten the COVID-19 curve” to “shut up and wear the mask—or else” in just a few short months? Back in March, we were told that lockdowns were necessary to ensure COVID-19 cases would not overwhelm hospitals and, in particular, intensive-care units. In most parts of the country, hospitals were not only not overwhelmed, many were forced to lay off nurses and other employees because elective procedures were put on hold — a move that likely cost lives as people postponed health critical screenings and avoided going to the hospital when they had chest pains for fear of catching COVID-19.

Yep.

But at the beginning of the pandemic, we were assured that once hospitals had things under control we could go back to our regularly scheduled lives, with the understanding that as things reopened and testing increased there would be a spike in the number of cases. Now it seems the goalposts are moving again and we’re being sent into further lockdown —in some cases more stringent lockdowns than before — by governors and other mini-tyrants who are in panic mode because people are catching a contagious (but not very deadly for most people) disease that is, you know, contagious.

Yep.  They operate out of fear.  But back to the article linked above:

So what is the goal at this point? Are we to wear masks until COVID is completely eradicated in the U.S.? Until we have zero cases? And once COVID is eradicated (it won’t be, but stick with me here), shouldn’t we continue to wear them until the flu is eradicated? And the common cold? Rotavirus? RSV? We’re being told that if we love our neighbors (and, by the way, you’re not a real Christian if you don’t’ want to wear a mask) we should be happy to wear a mask to protect them from COVID-19. If that’s the case, we’re going to have to continue to wear them until all contagions have been purged from the face of the earth—in other words, forever.

Yep.