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There's 3 hopes for this ending earlier and not being longterm.....
2. Herd immunity. Antibody testing will tell us how prevalent it is. Imperial College report recently estimates Italy at 8 million. We are probably beyond that. It spreads like wildfire so we may reach herd immunity inevitably way before a vaccine is approved. Controlled spread may be the path to end this.
Herd immunity will happen only after many people either recover from this or die.
The only reason I can think of is because stores will be closed...but that doesnt make any sense, we are considered 'essential'..? What will people do if they cannot buy fuel?
I don't think so. Trump was very interested in the economy at first, with the idea we can't stay locked down and also the IMO silly suggestion we would start opening things by Easter.
Suddenly things changed once the true fears emerged over the numbers that could die and now it's all about continuing to flatten the curve. Fauci is being heeded now by Trump. Now there is less talk of the economic implications other than the stimulus programs.
Which I agree, we need to self quarantine, we need to distance, but I agree with the others. They aren't telling the truth that we need to lock-down for up to a few years. Nobody can handle hearing that. It sounds abysmal, and there would be a lot of backlash.
How many times though can we be told another month? 15 days wasn't so bad, a month isn't so bad, but things will not get any better in May, so it will be extended. Whether it's for another month, or they start being more realistic and say 3-6 months, we'll have to wait and find out I guess. I highly doubt they'd say more than 3 months though or likely more than 2, but I also doubt next time would be the last extension.
There's also the likelihood that if things did start to reopen, they will quickly clamp down due to surges in cases. China reopened its theaters and quickly closed them. It's speculated a spike in numbers is the reason. Otherwise why would they do that?
They should've came clean in Feb to start requiring face masks in public and at all companies and stores that temperature must be checked before entry. That's how Asia handles things.
If we followed these simple things the hospitals would not be as crazy. Instead they told people lies about face mask not working but yet it only works in a hospital. Anyone who believed that is an idiot.
The result is that we lost this round of the battle against the virus. Without controlling the infection rate and the vaccine is another year away. More people will die as a result of their lies and incompetence.
We are supposed to be 1st world country and we end up being worst off than many 3rd world countries at protecting its citizens by lying.
They should've came clean in Feb to start requiring face masks in public and at all companies and stores that temperature must be checked before entry. That's how Asia handles things.
If we followed these simple things the hospitals would not be as crazy. Instead they told people lies about face mask not working but yet it only works in a hospital. Anyone who believed that is an idiot.
The point of this was to prevent the general public from buying all the medical masks resulting in a shortage for those who actually need it.
Even in Hong Kong, Carrie Lam's message to the people was confusing. She would show up to a press con wearing a mask, then again but not wearing one, then again wearing one. But at one point, she told people not to buy all the medical masks for this same reason (but of course, no one listened and everyone still bought them to protect themselves).
It's a little early to be discussing a long term plan when most people haven't even caught up with last month, but we can do some speculating.
1. Unemployment will continue to be a disaster. We have 10 million new unemployment claims in 2 weeks. Most of those are service sector jobs that require face to face contact with customers. Those jobs are not coming back any time soon. Last year the service sector was 67% of the US economy. If even a third of those jobs are lost, it would represent over a 20% loss of our GDP. How to cope with that is an exercise left to individuals. The Federal Government is already in financial disarray, so efforts to restructure the economy may be limited and ineffective.
Contagion concerns will accelerate the shift to a digital economy in the service sector and automation in the manufacturing sector. This process has already displaced many workers. The shock put a lot of stress on people to adapt. It's about to get worse.
2. Assemblies will be out of the question for a long time. Think empty sports stadiums and theaters. No more crowded outdoor festivals and concerts. No more summer art shows or church Christmas programs. Most of us can stream movies and shows online, but content may become a problem. Most productions are on hiatus because of crew safety concerns. Nobody is finding gifts under their seats on Oprah. Whole art forms may vanish. Will symphonies survive when concert halls are empty? How will musicians learn their craft when small venues are closed?
We can hope this phase will only last a year or two. If a vaccine is deployed, things may return to normal by 2021. Japan has postponed the Olympics until 2021, and if the labs do their thing, it may be possible. Meanwhile, somebody is stuck holding the paper on all those sports stadiums and crystal cathedrals.
3. Travel will need to be restructured. Many destinations would be fine once you got there. Getting there may be a problem. Nobody in their right mind would climb into an airliner, and cruise lines are history. Once you get there, high end destinations should be able to keep you more or less safe. Hospitals are using hydrogen peroxide vapor to sanitize n95 masks for re-use. A hotel should be able to do the same thing with hotel rooms. At least they would have to hire extra help.
We all suddenly got stuck in a marathon we were not training for. A lot of us will die before we cross the finish line. Those who survive will find a changed world. Good luck.
It's pretty simple. Once we have testing for virus and testing for antibodies, can we move forward. Cautiously, but not on full steam until a successful vaccine is created.
Your 80 year old parents might be willing to resume their lives, taking their chances with the virus, but how about the people they might accidentally infect? How about the many overwhelmed healthcare pros in hospitals who would deal with your parents and the people they infected? This is the problem, I think. We have to think about other people, who aren’t planning on dying soon.
Grim, indeed. But I can see how this Brave New World Scenario could in fact happen. Don't know what to think. What do we say to our children?
You teach your kids how to play monopoly game and tell them that adults are addicted to this game and it's up to them to figure out how to overthrow society and stop playing this game.
I don't have any faith in the US healthcare policies and the system. We already ignored months of preventive measures that could've been implemented back in Jan-Feb. Having worked at a healthcare provider I know the US healthcare system prefers having more sick people than giving people health. Instead of helping people stay healthy they prefer repeat patients. We spend more money on providing patients with tests and billing than creating vaccines and treatments. All these big pharmas claim there's no money to be made in cures only long term prescription meds.
“America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.”
-Walter Cronkite
People who get treated for COVID-19 are getting hit with a $35K medical bill!
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