Version 2.079

It appears there are a lot of people in Portugal who are happy that PM Costa pimped up quite a bit of money from the EU to spend on the "recovery." This is not recovery: the money at stake is insufficient to cover the total losses for the economy, some of the money will have to be paid back, and, as has been evidenced in recent history multiple times, a big chunk of the money will be wasted in corrupt deals we will hear about 10 years from now.

Thousands of citizens will die, in the meantime, because the government has decided that the best course of action is to double down on the mistakes it has already made. Anyone who is not a moron should have realized that, at this point, the priority has to be to control the number of cases and deaths and that has to be done for real and not by cooking the numbers.

It's very easy to do:

1. make everyone wear a mask, just like everyone has to wear a seatbelt; stop with all the "you should wear a mask, but we can't make you wear a mask because we're not a dictatorship." It is a lie, you can force people to wear masks.
   
2. educate people on personal hygiene--wash your hands, don't touch your face
   
3. practice social distancing: reorganize public transportation, promote extended working schedules
   
   • people should work in shifts of six or five hours and allow businesses to stay open for two or three shifts, that helps with unemployment, but it also allows businesses to spread fixed costs over more hours, which should increase the number of visiting customers
     
   • the shorter working day would also be helpful for taking care of loved ones and children, as adults could rotate their schedules and allows for fewer people in public transportation at any given time
     
   • promote work from home arrangements if possible
     

You can't just state that the country can't handle confinement again expecting people to do the right thing on their own. There are plenty of nutty people outside of Portugal who can visit and spread infection or who can visit and take infection. The system is too porous and while the Portuguese government has the Portuguese media wrapped around its finger, not all of the international media is under control. Plus, there are plenty of foreign governments eager to reciprocate on the insults they receive from the Portuguese authorities.

Furthermore, it delays the recovery because Portugal will be put under travel restrictions as it has happened before. How many times can you make the same mistake before you realize that "Geez, that was stupid!"