Balaji Srinivasan, doctor in Bioinformatics, former CTO of Coinbase, and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, compared two possible scenarios with COVID-19.
As per April 11, 2020, more than 496,000 people have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus in the U.S., with 18,000 deaths reported. Doctor Balaji Srinivasan is sure that the country needs to go between Scylla and Charybdis.
Unchecked Virus or Unlimited Government?
Balaji Srinivasan has announced two maximalist scenarios of approach that will prevent future COVID-19 outbreaks. This activity may end either in digital concentration camps or an infected jungle.
Doctor Srinivasan also witnessed the emergence of two camps in the society. The first one, formed by the ‘just-the-flu’ and ‘let-it-rip’ advocates, is a ‘red zone’ for him. Their opponents constitute the ‘green zone’.
This comparison started a heated debate between the followers of Doctor Srinivasan. Mostly, they predict the savage rivalry between ‘red’ and ‘green’ zones until one side wins.
States Failed to Help
This dilemma between the bad and the bad outcome isn’t inevitable by design. A well-regulated state might have had an appropriate solution:
The ideal of course is a competent centralized state that uses its powers to prevent the spread of the virus such that people don’t have to choose between viral anarchy and the total state.
So, it’s not only the COVID-19 outbreak itself, but a lack of governmental competence to react, requiring people to make such a dystopian choice.
As reported by U.Today, ‘gold bug’ Peter Schiff admitted that the U.S. Federal Government and Federal Reserve pose ‘even greater threats’ as compared to those associated with the COVID-19 outbreak.