- Jun 6, 2007
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I have a confession to make I am a morally depraved person because I am one of those American's that believes we should be having the conversation on how we can re-open parts of the country in weeks not months. I know I am a substandard human being because I care about the dollar my values are that ending this shut down isn't solely about when is it fully safe for human life there is a balance as a society we cannot wait until the situation is completely safe for human life from the corona-virus danger at some point in parts of the country the danger to human life falls low enough that it doesn't outweigh the economic cost of shutting down the economy. All these holier than thou people need to stop with the opportunism painting us as rotten, despicable, un-American people; disagree with me on the re-opening issue with all your heart, mind, strength and will but let's not make it personal you don't need to and that is unduly divisive for the country! Further, stop with the cheap shots, having discussions on when to re-open parts of the economy for the strongest economy in the world that was shut down to fight a pandemic doesn't negate doesn't say never mind to the social distancing mandate effectuated by the shut-down reasonable Americans can see how it is responsible and important the instruction to keep one's distance from another person for a highly contagious disease that is killing two-hundred and fifty people a day in America!
Testing people suspected of having the Covid 19 virus had been the problem there wasn't enough testing kits. The FDA has done a stellar job at approving new testing products. By the first week in April Roche will be producing 400 thousand tests a week. Thermo-Fisher will be producing five million tests per month by April, it already has a million and a half in reserve, Cepheid has been approved for a test that can be used in a hospital setting and give results in forty-five minutes. By the second week of April America should be testing every person in the country with strong symptoms of the Covid 19 virus and so should be able to produce fairly accurate models of the spread of this disease in this country. Currently, eleven states have under one hundred cases, say by April 15 these eleven states have less than three hundred cases each and let us say the country puts in place in these states mandatory quarantine for people that have this virus where if a person is not cooperating with self quarantining the government has authority to force quarantine that person (doesn't the Federal government have that authority be the Public Health Service Act of 1944) and the government in that state does contact tracking and warns those that have had more than momentary contact with the carrier to self quarantine for fourteen days plus if the law allows people with pre-existing medical conditions which make the vulnerable to this virus and the elderly which are also vulnerable to avoid having to work and thus expose themselves to the virus. Why couldn't those states reopen, ordinary people's contact with a carrier would be remote, society puts the most vulnerable to this disease out of harms way and the infected rate in the state is low enough that there is plenty of medical resources for people that come down with the disease and need medical care?
The economic harm from this shutdown is not only costly but should not be considered as being remedied like turning on a light switch. The operation of a business is often a difficult and fragile thing; getting people working together and effectively in a high quality manner is often a hard thing getting that up and running again once it has been shut down will be a real challenge in many cases and becomes harder as time passes. Further, many businesses have a time sensitivity to them you go into a retail department store today and the selling floor wide spread has spring/summer clothing on it you say you'll reopen that store in three months that department store won't be able to turn over all that spring/summer merchandise by the end of the spring/summer season many brick and mortar individual stores are barely hanging on a big loss this year could close many individual stores for the twenty and thirty something workers that may not be a big deal but for the forty and fifty year olds who have given ten to twenty years of service to that business it's a big deal they ain't getting an equivalent job! The economic harm here shouldn't be dismissed as irrelevant, economic considerations translate into important elements of a person's life; life is much more than if one's physical health is okay it involves these important elements!
President Trump if you're listening you did an outstanding job since the middle of March getting medical resources for this crisis and you have done an outstanding job with you're call to go big on the governments legislative response to the crisis but you are blowing it in providing leadership for the country in how we transition from a shut down status to a re-start the economy status, granted it is a really really tough tasks. But stop with the taking questions at press conferences and the casual interview with journalist you are going to get trapped you are going to give them ammunition to wound you bad; this is absolutely the time to let the White House Press Secretary and the Science Experts carry the ball, totally and completely , when it comes to dealing with the media. This issue calls for a lot of technical jargon, charts and comparison to other countries responses: Mr. President you keep standing in front of the camera then be prepared to pick people that you consider it is acceptable they die from the pandemic, I think you're nuts if you want to be in that position!
Testing people suspected of having the Covid 19 virus had been the problem there wasn't enough testing kits. The FDA has done a stellar job at approving new testing products. By the first week in April Roche will be producing 400 thousand tests a week. Thermo-Fisher will be producing five million tests per month by April, it already has a million and a half in reserve, Cepheid has been approved for a test that can be used in a hospital setting and give results in forty-five minutes. By the second week of April America should be testing every person in the country with strong symptoms of the Covid 19 virus and so should be able to produce fairly accurate models of the spread of this disease in this country. Currently, eleven states have under one hundred cases, say by April 15 these eleven states have less than three hundred cases each and let us say the country puts in place in these states mandatory quarantine for people that have this virus where if a person is not cooperating with self quarantining the government has authority to force quarantine that person (doesn't the Federal government have that authority be the Public Health Service Act of 1944) and the government in that state does contact tracking and warns those that have had more than momentary contact with the carrier to self quarantine for fourteen days plus if the law allows people with pre-existing medical conditions which make the vulnerable to this virus and the elderly which are also vulnerable to avoid having to work and thus expose themselves to the virus. Why couldn't those states reopen, ordinary people's contact with a carrier would be remote, society puts the most vulnerable to this disease out of harms way and the infected rate in the state is low enough that there is plenty of medical resources for people that come down with the disease and need medical care?
The economic harm from this shutdown is not only costly but should not be considered as being remedied like turning on a light switch. The operation of a business is often a difficult and fragile thing; getting people working together and effectively in a high quality manner is often a hard thing getting that up and running again once it has been shut down will be a real challenge in many cases and becomes harder as time passes. Further, many businesses have a time sensitivity to them you go into a retail department store today and the selling floor wide spread has spring/summer clothing on it you say you'll reopen that store in three months that department store won't be able to turn over all that spring/summer merchandise by the end of the spring/summer season many brick and mortar individual stores are barely hanging on a big loss this year could close many individual stores for the twenty and thirty something workers that may not be a big deal but for the forty and fifty year olds who have given ten to twenty years of service to that business it's a big deal they ain't getting an equivalent job! The economic harm here shouldn't be dismissed as irrelevant, economic considerations translate into important elements of a person's life; life is much more than if one's physical health is okay it involves these important elements!
President Trump if you're listening you did an outstanding job since the middle of March getting medical resources for this crisis and you have done an outstanding job with you're call to go big on the governments legislative response to the crisis but you are blowing it in providing leadership for the country in how we transition from a shut down status to a re-start the economy status, granted it is a really really tough tasks. But stop with the taking questions at press conferences and the casual interview with journalist you are going to get trapped you are going to give them ammunition to wound you bad; this is absolutely the time to let the White House Press Secretary and the Science Experts carry the ball, totally and completely , when it comes to dealing with the media. This issue calls for a lot of technical jargon, charts and comparison to other countries responses: Mr. President you keep standing in front of the camera then be prepared to pick people that you consider it is acceptable they die from the pandemic, I think you're nuts if you want to be in that position!
