Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
One massive testing day. Obviously you would need a huge amount of volunteers to test people and run the tests. Hire those who have recovered to do this. Even pay people to be tested.
Quarantine all the positive cases for 2 weeks or until they are no longer positive. Do this again in 2 weeks. Keep doing this until we get the numbers down to zero. And quarantine all incoming people into the country.
Seems to me getting all the positive cases out of being able to infect new people is the best way to fight this pandemic. I know its a massive undertaking just to test everyone, plus the quarantining . But if there was a will to do this we could find a way.
It was lack of test kits, lack of labs. Then there is false negatives, false positives, the results are only good for that one day.
No way could all the people be tested in one day.
Or we could do nothing.
My 88 y/o father tested positive in an extended care facility for dimentia, 3 weeks ago; and no Covid symptoms.
They moved him 50 miles away to a different facility for Covid positive patients, and now aren't sure when they can send him back.
Are you missing something?, we all are I do believe.
Am not referring to my father(says food is better where he is!)with the above comment, but rather thinking we shouldn't be forcing people to quarantine who aren't sick; unless you intend on trampling all over Constitutional rights.
How do you enforce asymptomatic quarantines?
You can't, this would require everyone to volunteer; and Americans are much too self-centered for that.
Your idea in theory is foolproof. However, something like 5 to 10% of the country will probably test positive right now - 15 to 30 million people. Maybe more. Will they all get unemployment? What about their spouses? What if I'm positive and my wife isn't? She soon will be...what if I have kids? Adult children living with me? And so on.
There are about 300 million reasons why that solution is elegant - but not practical.
One more - just because I test negative today doesn't mean I won't catch it tonight. The test is not instant.
Your idea in theory is foolproof. However, something like 5 to 10% of the country will probably test positive right now - 15 to 30 million people. Maybe more. Will they all get unemployment? What about their spouses? What if I'm positive and my wife isn't? She soon will be...what if I have kids? Adult children living with me? And so on.
There are about 300 million reasons why that solution is elegant - but not practical.
One more - just because I test negative today doesn't mean I won't catch it tonight. The test is not instant.
It would be a monumental task. I suppose one way would be everyone in the house would have to quarantine with the positive person. They are living there anyways and of the person is asymptomatic they would not even know. At least with that info you can be extra careful. Or. There are 5 million hotel rooms in the country. Work a deal out where the feds pay for the people to quarantine there. Hotel business is way down of course. It would be a nice stimulus for the hotels.
I don't think 5 to 10% would test positive now. We might be at 15% that have had it and this is over several months. If 5 to 10% are catching it every couple weeks we would be at herd immunity by now.
Say its 3-4 million. We are getting 175,000 new cases a week that is 350,000 in two weeks. If we are finding 10% of what is out there that puts us at 3-4 million.
And double that assuming many of those people are living with others. And like I said use hotels for people who cannot isolate themselves. Perhaps 1/2 go to hotels, 1/2 stay at home.
Of course some will slip through some tests will be wrong. I would say use what the white house is using to get results in 15 minutes. Mass produce this thing by whatever means are possible. That is why you retest in two weeks. And then again in two weeks. You could save 100,000 lives doing this and not disrupt more the economy.
Or we could do nothing.
My 88 y/o father tested positive in an extended care facility for dimentia, 3 weeks ago; and no Covid symptoms.
They moved him 50 miles away to a different facility for Covid positive patients, and now aren't sure when they can send him back.
Are you missing something?, we all are I do believe.
Am not referring to my father(says food is better where he is!)with the above comment, but rather thinking we shouldn't be forcing people to quarantine who aren't sick; unless you intend on trampling all over Constitutional rights.
How do you enforce asymptomatic quarantines?
You can't, this would require everyone to volunteer; and Americans are much too self-centered for that.
I am sorry about your father. I found out yesterday several of my extended family who all live together have it. They have symptoms.
Males over 18 have to register for selective service. If you don't you cannot student loans or a whole bunch of different benefits. So almost everyone registers. So penalize people who do not. You do not have to chase everyone down. Just incentivize doing it.
We are already trampling on everyone's rights. Forced shutdowns, forcing people to stay in their homes, forced mask usage. 40 million plus unemployed. Governors deciding which businesses they deem essential. We could have a roller coaster of this that could last a couple more years. Not only is it bad for the economy but very stressful for everyone. Not to mention all the people getting sick and dying.
My idea would be short term pain but get us through this faster. And save a lot of lives. Plus I think we need to really know who is positive. Not just guess.
My idea would be short term pain but get us through this faster. And save a lot of lives. Plus I think we need to really know who is positive. Not just guess.
Thoughts and prayers for you and family, may they fully recover.
While I completely agree and would have no problem volunteering, the logistics of testing half a billion citizens when polls show only 50% wish to be is overwhelming.
However, could be done in the same manner as our census; and would have to be federally implemented.
Simply threatening reversing the phases of re-opening(Florida!)would motivate people to get tested, but states like South Dakota/Carolina etc won't go along w/it. Then the Feds could threaten these states with less funding I suppose.
Thoughts and prayers for you and family, may they fully recover.
While I completely agree and would have no problem volunteering, the logistics of testing half a billion citizens when polls show only 50% wish to be is overwhelming.
However, could be done in the same manner as our census; and would have to be federally implemented.
Simply threatening reversing the phases of re-opening(Florida!)would motivate people to get tested, but states like South Dakota/Carolina etc won't go along w/it. Then the Feds could threaten these states with less funding I suppose.
Thank you!
The country is so on edge with the economy, protests, and the upcoming election and of course the virus. Could our country handle a little short term inconvenience to get this over quicker? Probably not. Too many seem to be caring about what they think is best for them in the short term. Sure the feds could strong arm everyone but that could create more protests over being tested and we never get it done. You need close to 100% to make this work. I agree getting to 50% would be a tough chore.
I read how a city in Tennessee is looking to go back to a partial shutdown. That is the next shoe to drop unfortunately. Returning to shutdowns
Having worked in scientific research for 20 years now and knowing what the antigen test requires it's impossible. Don't get me wrong I love your idea, but I know what is involved and you just can't do it.
I think just being able to test 500,000 in a single day, like we are now, is absolutely mind-blowing and amazing!
Lets say for arguments sake say we had 320 million sterile cotton swabs, we had all the reagents (chemicals) to test 320 million samples, with tens of thousands of people to run the tests, there isn't enough PCR machines to run all those samples all at once, it would literally take weeks and weeks, maybe even months, running all those machines 24/7 and hoping none of them break down in order to get the results.
And like someone else mentioned, with any test you are going to get both false negatives and false positives and the test is just a single snapshot, a moment in time, if you will and you can literally test negative one day and test positive the next.
I know it's frustrating, but we would of had to shut down entry into the US back in December. And when I say shutdown entry, I mean air/land/sea absolutely nobody getting back in, even US citizens and then start testing hot spots and tracing everyone they came in contact with.
At this point, and it might be sad to say, we just have to keep on doing what we are doing and ride this thing out, I know that's probably not what you wanted to hear, but it is what it is.
Look at those countries that have ZERO current cases. Social distancing, testing, and contact tracing. On a mega scale. Maybe the most important part is that you have to have most everybody on board and cooperating. We are so polarized here and have politicized it to such an extent, that it would be like herding cats. If half population including the president, is in denial then it wont work.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
