Patrick McKenzie

Can I jump in with one bit of optimism?

Yeah.

We achieved something incredible, which was getting like the first cut of the vaccine done in two days as a result of, you know, many decades of science done by very incredible people.

And we successfully got that vaccine productionized in a year.

We should have got it productionized in far less than a year.

But right.

The fact that we were able to do it in one year and not three was enormously consequential.

And so we should feel happy about that.

A little annoyed that we didn't have better protocols at the FDA in places to get that vaccine prioritized for testing much faster than was.

Quite annoyed at the fact that that was a political football and people probably made decisions that pessimized for human lives and optimized for defeating a non-preferred political candidate.

Yeah.

And I strongly believe that was a political decision, but I don't, I'm just a software guy.

It's difficult to ask that question because we were clearly in a unique time in 2020 and 2021.

And yet, like...

Point to me in the year in American history in which American society was truly united and had no social issues going on.

And if people like counterfactually like point to say World War II, I will say like read more history.

But be that as it may.

Was it the case that strong societal feelings in the wake of George Lloyd's death in 2020 and the racial reckoning strongly dictated policy?

Yes.

As a positive statement rather than a normative statement, that is absolutely the case.