[ALittleLight]

"This is an instance of a broader theme: we were surprised that many entities continued with something close to “business as usual” rather than switching to emergency pandemic mode"

I think we need to codify what "emergency mode" is and when we switch to it. Bureaucracies, and those working in them, need to understand when the situation is not "business as usual" and get out of the way! Implicit in that is, when we are in emergency mode, more risk is taken, there is less red tape, we expect side effects and damage, but we also expect faster progress. We can't just expect systems designed to be slow and cautious to instantly flip to aggressive explorers without defining what we expect and when to do it.

[dalbasal]

>> We can't just expect systems designed to be slow and cautious to instantly flip to aggressive explorers without defining what we expect and when to do it.

This is precisely the problem. Who is "we," and how are they going to define these new protocols?

The "systems" are not (exclusively) designed. They're evolved. They're impenetrable, or at least difficult to penetrate. They're autonomous. Only insiders have the requisite knowledge to figure out what emergency mode is.

The whole point is not to wait for "orders" to drop down.