Battling COVID: How To Do It Right

We can virtually eliminate the virus any time we decide to.

We are always 4-6 weeks from being able to do what countries around the world have done.

Instead of a 50% lockdown, do a serious 90% lockdown for two months. The economy would take a several week hit. And we would need extended unemployment insurance.

At first, it would seem like absolutely nothing is changing.

Cases would still grow from the prior weeks & the incubation period. Hospitals would still be full. We would still see people die.

But, after a few weeks, what would happen is what happened in other countries.

If you have 60,000 cases in your community, in 50 days, it would drop to 58. After 8 weeks, you don’t have zero cases, but you have embers.

You know how now we don’t have enough tests? Then, we would have plenty. Plenty to test everyone going into work, to school, to church, to an event. And if there’s a stray case or a dozen, we would find it in a day. Because we would get the tests back the same day, we could very easily let everybody who had been around the infected know they should get a test.

Whether we do this or not, let’s not pretend this isn’t an option.

Excerpted from Andy Slavitt’s twitter

If we would ALL SHARE THE PAIN OF LOCKDOWN, it could end. Instead, I’ve been on lockdown and out of work for 19 weeks with no end in sight.

And today it was reported “Google will keep its employees home until at least July 2021 - the first major U.S. corporation to formalize such an extended timetable in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.”

That’s the current reality of life in the USA.

Also, we’re barred from other countries.

And, hey tourism-dependent cities - those in healthy countries are not going to be visiting the infected USA in large numbers anytime soon.