It's a damn shame we didn't have testing capabilities early on, so we could have done the Containment procedures for pandemics written in protocol for Pandemics.
Instead of testing early containment, then those testing positive are isolated and any one that person was in contact with is tested, which is called contact tracing and so on and so forth, with isolating those with the virus over and over again.....
we, those of us not infected, could have continued to be free and be able to work, fairly safely....
stores would not have had to close,
Wall Street would not have gotten the heebeegeebees and bailed in the stock market,
the Sports players would likely not have gotten the virus that caused all sports events across the nation to shut down.... etc!!!
and by this random testing in all different regions of the USA, we could have traced its origins, and know...where it was heading.... we would not have been totally BLIND as we were for weeks and weeks on end....
Early testing, was the key to the containment phase.... we had to skip that phase and go in to the Mitigation phase, of flattening the curve, by STAY AT HOME orders and go in to hunkering down, Shut all non essential businesses down, to slow the spread, so hospitals would not be overwhelmed.
Care, did you read a couple days ago that they finally figured out who brought the first Covid case to Maine? It was a traveling salesman who had territory in several states. Since he was still working, obviously he wasn't that sick. Maybe he didn't even know.
My point is, it took WEEKS to isolate that carrier. In the meantime, you know what happened to Cumberland and York counties.
To catch that Virus in the traveling salesman, it would mean every single person traveling into Maine would have to be tested. Every. Single. One. Talk about a line at the Kittery bridge toll booths!
it is a daunting task, and costs a lot in man power, no doubt!
But considering we have 40% of businesses shuttered, a likely 20 million plus Americans unemployed in a 3 week period, the stock market crashing and the Oil Market Crashing, and the cost of bailouts..... I think the expense of contact testing would be considered pennies, in comparison!!!!!!
Also, if every state was randomly testing and contact tracing testing, with isolation of the positive testers, it is probable, that the traveling salesman, who brought it here, would have been caught, in another one of the other states he traveled to, before here in Maine....
by testing and isolating.... it cuts down on how many people the positive testers, pass it on to from 1 person infected passing it to just one other person, instead of passing it to 3 other persons, for each and every person positively carrying the virus, on average....
one of the examples on tv showed a simulation,
without testing and isolating:
1 person infects 3, who each infects 3 others, those 9 infect 3 each=27, those 27 infected, infect 3 each equals 81, those 81 infecting 3 others = 243, and those 243 infect another 729 people and those would infect 3 each which would be 2187 people and so on and so forth....
with testing and contact tracing testing and isolating the positive people:
with that ratio of infection reduced to one for one, then in the same amount of time, starting with just one person, as in my example above would infect something less 10 people
yes it could be between a 2 to 3 being infected instead of 3, but also could be less or more than 1 to 1 if isolated.... I'm giving you an estimate for worse case....
shuttering down, moves the numbers low enough to have a second chance, at testing and contact tracing....CONTAINMENT, till we get a vaccine... and allows the rest of us, not positive to go back to work with some precautions, and be free!