The Coronavirus

[Bob Butler 54]

(04-17-2020, 12:16 AM)Warren Dew Wrote: Shutting down businesses isn't social distancing; it's shutting down businesses.  Let's at least be honest about it.

I do know of a lawyer who is quietly ignoring Massachusetts' stay at home order in a fairly safe way.  He has only a few employees.  He does not invite clients to visit the office, but does his work mostly using the telephone and internet.  The employees mostly sleep at the office, and do not rejoin families to spread anything.  He can keep going as well as those who work at home.

Then there are businesses such as the meat packing plant in South Dakota.  It is set up to have employees working closely together, in violation of any distancing protocol.  As soon as the first employee has the virus, you have a hot spot.  Yet, you have to keep open some of these businesses which are impossible to retrofit to social distancing.

Shutting down everything is a one size fits all solution.  When the problem first occurs you reach for the quick and dirty solution.  We have now a chance to get far more nuanced.  But you have to reduce contact enough to not overwhelm the medical system.  You have to have exponential decay rather than exponential growth.  Given the lack of testing, it is hard to customize.  You end up throwing away a lot of babies with the bathwater.

You might also isolate seniors more.  Younger people could take more risks of catching the virus, but be ready to isolate more thoroughly while they are contagious.  Seniors would be a problem, with much more isolation implemented longer.

Having some sort of plan in place which maintains social distancing while keeping some productivity should allow a business to reopen.  We are entering a phase where some of that might be done.  The lack of testing is still a problem.