30 million unemployed before people are talking of opening things up. Poverty is inexorably linked to the health of its citizens.
We were in a huge bubble that was going to pop, and pop hard anyway. Total market cap to GDP was, and still is, well over a sustainable level. At least according to Warren Buffet's opinion on the most reliable indicator, which puts it at about 50% higher than last year's GDP. Then there is also the aspect of the positive impact the measures put in place have had, economically. www.forbes.com/.../
Certainly there are things with which I take issue. To your point about ER censuses being low - yes, there are things that I personally think could have been managed better. I don't think that closing up all activities to keep ER's vacant in parts of hte country largely unaffected was a good call. But, then again, I am inclined to think that it was done with the assumption that PPE would be redistributed to where it was needed, rather than hoarded like TP in late March. The flip side of this is that had no action been taken, the whole country may look like New York, where COVID has so far killed 0.13% of the population (which would extrapolate to 450,000 nationwide).
I don't disagree with your point. Just pointing out that all the actions were intended to be a balancing act.
Problem is this:
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.....we have had plenty of time to ramp up nationwide testing, perhaps via DPA, which would have made a measured return to normal a safer endeavor.
This is the single biggest failure of the policies that were put in place, and why the US is in such bad shape compared to the rest of the world, despite having more warning than anyone else out there. It is mind boggling, but also points to our culture's tendency to ignore any sort of long term thinking.
Not everybody is sitting on a multiple million dollar 401k that say, an interventional cardiologist might have.
I cannot speak for other interventional cardiologists, but I do not have a multimillion dollar 401k. I am still employed, but I have taken a pay cut, despite the fact that I work at a designated Covid hospital.
No one is demanding “an ultimate promise of safety.†But livelihood vs lives is a false choice. We can reopen using science and try to reduce the number of deaths. Flattening the curve buys us time, time to learn about the virus, time to develop therapeutics, time to ramp up testing and contact tracing to slow the spread.
According to the CDC, chlorine kills the virus. But droplets from an infected individual, who may be asymptomatic, can remain suspended in the air for hours.
The bigger question is why we are reopening the country without a plan for widespread testing, contact tracing, and isolation of positives. Presently only 5% of the population has been infected. Herd immunity will not occur until 70% have been. This is not the flu.
Agreed! But, here's a question for the herd immunity camp: Will herd immunity work if it hasn't been definitively proven that you can't get COVID-19 a second (or third...) time? If virus survivors can get infected again, and in turn infect others, this virus will just keep going in circles until we can all get vaccinated. It will be interesting to see what happens in Sweden and Brazil-- two countries being led by herd immunity advocates.
