Inform Each Other?

[David Horn]

(03-19-2020, 07:05 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: It's ridiculous.  We went from no precautions, to reasonable precautions, to gross overkill, over a weekend.  And none of this will permit enough cases to build herd immunity.  People are laboring under the misconception that it's only for a week or two, when it's not likely to change until an effective vaccine is produced and released, which is likely to be a year or more.  Everyone is giving up a year of their lives to avoid a small chance of a disease which for most of them won't be more than a bad cold.

I just heard Governor Cuomo of NY address this issue, and his take is a good one.  If you want people back out there earning money and keeping things going, you need to do a few simple things:

1. Isolate the truly at-risk individuals.  Most have compromised immune systems or they are quite elderly.
   
2. Start testing in earnest.  Testing allows several complimentary things:
   • Identification of people infected but not symptomatic.  Some never will be; others can be tracked and treated early.
     
   • Identification of people who had the virus and have already recovered -- many who were never aware they were sick.
     
   • Use the data to identify areas at risk as well as individuals.
     
3. For those who are post-illness, get them back in the workforce.
   
4. For those not at risk and testing healthy, get them back working as well.
   

None of this happens overnight.  Cuomo's team put the estimate at 8 weeks to get this in place,, with improvements being incremental from that point forward.  That beats the hell out of 8 months, which will apply unless we get going in earnest.  He also noted that we need to use the Defense Procurement Act as a tool -- starting immediately.