See this article from May 21, Lockdown Delays Cost at Least 36,000 Lives, Data Show. This may be rearview-mirror carping, but it is true that the faster you can turn the decision wheel, the more success you can achieve.
Balancing speed of decisionmaking with good data and hunches is a real challenge. I can tell you too that political proclivities are not the type of things that should influence your decision-making. Facts and data, bolstered by gut instincts are many times what provide for success.
Hunches by themselves are not the best markers for decision-making. Hunches born out of experiences can be good, but you need something other than a hunch to make a decision. When the Germans raced across France in the early stages of World War II, the French general in charge of that nation's armies didn't believe the intel reports because they seemed impossible based on his WWI experiences. Thus, his "experience" was a detriment to the fact that warfare had changed.
Everything is changing now. You need to take the experience you have from the past and apply it to today's situation -- whatever it is that you are considering. Then -- make an informed decision. You can't wait in this, the 21st century, to know that you are making the right decision. It will be too late -- others will have arrived ahead of you. Thus we are living in the "fog of the 21st century." You will know you were right, or wrong at some point in the future. Endless debate and hand wringing will get you nowhere!
