Protect the vulnerable, develop the herd immunity. Only way out and has been from the beginning.
Sweden went against the grain by keeping public life as unrestricted as possible when the coronavirus hit. Now, it says its strategy appears to be working.
www.cnbc.com
Meanwhile we're arresting people in parks and hiding like rats and it is, of course, way more widespread than people thought, even with all of these measures here.
At a cost to Sweden so far of 192 deaths/million population compared to the US at 144/million.
So, are you volunteering to get infected?
Yes and they'll be largely done while we are still hiding and trying to stop something we cannot, while our death toll will likely be spread over a longer time period as we have multiple waves of this.
And spare me the BS leading question/false choice nonsense. I've been working right through this with very few changes in my life and nobody, including Sweden, is advocating not taking reasonable precautions. This is NOT an either or choice between total lockdown and slobbering all over each other at every opportunity while making no effort to slow transmission and protect the vulnerable- and never has been.
And the point is, for those too myopic to realize this, that there are other strategies out there that have been employed, and other nations that are further along the timeline than we are. As those results start to become available it makes sense and is necessary to assess them to determine the best path forward for us.
Which country has the best results in protecting it population from coronavirus? The Answer
TAIWAN! Only 6 deaths in TAIWAN. TAIWAN is the gold standard in protecting its population. Trump's failure is measured by the number of deaths Taiwan has vs. the United States.
Sweden has the 9th highest death rate per capita in the world from coronavirus. Why would anyone follow that example for protecting its population. There are only 8 other countries that are dying at a greater rate than Sweden from coronavirus.
Because you're only delaying the inevitable. You can get the virus now or 6 months from now.
Well, then your claiming that its inevitable that 5 million Americans will die from the virus and we should not do anything.
South Korea is a country of 50 million people, but has less than 11,000 infections. Tell me, when will the other 49,989,000 people get the virus?
TAIWAN is a country of 24 million people with only 429 infections. Tell me when the other 23,999,571 people will be getting the virus in TAIWAN? Realize TAIWAN often goes several days without any new infections at all. Today, the whole country had ONE new infection.
Did everyone get the 1918 Spanish Flu? NOPE. Did the few cities that practiced social distancing and shutdown business's suffer less death and illness? YEP!
NOTHING is inevitable when it comes to a virus and societies fight against it. People can make a difference and save lives through their actions. That was the lesson of the 1918 pandemic!
This is not an either-or scenario.
I know you want to run around with your hair perpetually on fire and think the entire nation should hide until the advent of some medical advance that frees us from bondage.
The rest of us would rather plan an actual way out of this mess. If that is reasonable social distancing, protecting the at risk and managing spikes, more widespread antibody testing, fine and I think that's where we are headed.
No matter what, there will be risks. Everyone acknowledges that there is no safe path and it sucks. States are already running out of money and we're a couple of months in. Thats only going to get worse, not better, until we take a step back and reassess based on what we are learning here and from other countries that have adapted different strategies and adapt an approach here that gets people back to work as soon as possible while protecting the vulnerable to the greatest degree possible.
I don't think you realize how much of the population in the United States is vulnerable. 40% of the U.S. population is obese. Nearly 50% have hypertension or pre-hypertension which is another underlying risk factor.
The lockdown economic damage is minimal compared to the death and destruction that would be caused by letting the virus run rampant. There is NO MIDDLEGROUND! The virus is like a FIRE, it needs oxygen to survive. The oxygen in this case is PEOPLE. You kill this thing by keeping people ISOLATED from each other.
You can lockdown for 3 years or 5 years if needed, the economic damage would be minimal and repairable compared to say being NUKED. Hiroshima was nuked on August 6, 1945, but the city was fully rebuilt by 1958 and had a larger population in 1958 than in 1945.
The economic damage is bad, but its certainly not as bad as what Hiroshima went through. The economic damage can be repaired. But you can't bring someone back to life who has died from covid-19.
In terms of protecting the vulnerable, we have already failed to protect old people in nursing homes. The loss of life in nursing homes has been terrible. You risk killing more vulnerable people by reopening and will only bring another lockdown within a couple of months.
The vast majority of Americans support the lockdown. Most Americans are also not going to suddenly become customers at these non-essential business's you want to reopen. Consumers will not come out to spend until it is SAFE. So opening your business won't solve the economic problem. In fact, it may just put people further in the hole. The cost of opening up but getting no customers for business would be a WORSE situation than staying locked down.
Isolated for how long? 5 years? There would be anarchy. 5 years LMAO!!!! You are medically insane. Economic damage is devastating not "bad". If old people are in nursing homes how many years do they have left to live? Link that "vast" majority support the lockdown and will that be the case if it lasts five years.
Start a new thread with a 5-year lockdown and see how many on this board agree with you. Living in isolation is not living, it is a pseudo prison sentence. You want to punish 99% to save 1%. Crazy. Why would you get "no" customers? I bet restaurants and bars would be jammed.
Most people on this board are Trumpers who would continue supporting Trump if he raped a teenage girl on live TV.
The United States is the wealthiest country in the world and can take the hit, in order to save lives. People are not going to go to movies, concerts, Church, bars, nightclubs, sporting events, if they feel it is not SAFE and will get them sick or cost them their lives.
The only way out of this pandemic is lockdown until new cases are low enough to be managed through contact tracing. Or a vaccine is finally developed. Until then, you can open your business if you want, but the consumer is not going to give you any business.
#1) Bullshit. People will go. You won't because you're a coward. Open it up and see what happens.
#2) Wealthiest but for FIVE YEARS of no work or sports or concerts or movies, you will have a revolt.
#3) Vaccine. LOL why don't we shut the country down every flu season? 30-50k die annually then. This was overblown.
#4) The consumer will. This does not impact young people the way it impacts older people.
If you're saying people won't go anyway then open it up and see what happens. Start a thread that you want a FIVE YEAR lockdown and see if even one person agrees. Do you have a job or are you a student (I suspect) who lives with their parents?
1. Well, Georgia is the test case. Lets see how many people are at restaurants, bars, movie theaters, concerts, churches, and sporting events over the next several weeks. We'll know soon enough how much business is being done in "reopened Georgia".
2. 37% of the labor force can do their jobs without leaving their house. Another 25% are engaged in essential services and are still on the job. Its only about 1/3 of the labor force that is not at work. The government can pay them to stay home just as they paid the 1/3 of the labor force to go overseas and kill German and Japs in World War II.
3. We don't shut the country because of seasonal flu, because we have a vaccine that can prevent it from killing people. The problem is that only 50% of the country gets their vaccine shots. If everyone did, you could reduce seasonal flu deaths by 90%. Seasonal flu is less deadly and less transmissible than coronavirus. Seasonal Flu and coronavirus are not comparable at all.
4. Anyone with an underlying health condition can be impacted by the disease. If they are not impacted by the disease, they can help spread the disease and allow to kill other people. The coronavirus is like a FIRE, it needs oxygen to survive. In this case, that oxygen comes from un-isolated people.
Georgia is already following your experiment of opening up. We'll see how many concerts, sporting events, packed bars, clubs, and other places they have over the next month.