Things will have to open up this year otherwise it seems there really will be economic devastation. We aren't at that point yet, though. And I'm not an expert so I can't say when would be the right time to open. I'd be following what epidemiologists are saying. I don't enjoy being stuck at home and want to get back to normal and understand it's making others miserable and causing economic hardship for many. I'm still concerned with getting sick and infecting others. I also have an autoimmune condition. And asthma. So would I be extra dead if I got this? Maybe. I'm also still healthy despite those conditions so I might be able to get through it. It's really easy to be willing for others to die when you don't count yourself among them. I have a young son I do not want to catch this, either. I don't know how it will affect him. My mother is immunocompromised. And that's what it comes down to. The deaths are either personal for you or they aren't. There's no changing minds on that. But thankfully, most governors are listening to the experts and taking this seriously to protect public health and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. It's helping. Where I am, now we are looking at opening non emergency procedures.
I agree...it should be done in a systematic, and intelligent manner.
The idea of "herd immunity" sounds all good if you think you are in a safe category, but even those people who think they are low-risk are still at risk of ending up as the one on the ventilator.
And just willy-nilly letting the virus blast through the community is what causes the curve to shoot way up.
I'm sorry, but the idea of just letting those with the virus die off instead of putting them on ventilators because their survival rate is already "low" is cruel imho.
And that survival rate is variable btw - with some estimates as high as 50% or more.
Those are
preventable deaths.
I know some people are scared that keeping the economy closed will do more damage than the virus, but we also have to keep in mind that the virus left out of control will also devastate the economy - we don't have to be cruel and let people die unnecessarily to save the economy.
I'm certainly not saying we should keep things closed indefinitely, I DO think that will do unnecessary damage also - there is a happy medium though.
We don't have to let extra people die to rush things "back to normal" (which they will not be no matter what you do at this point).
The virus is now the number one killer in the US - I think we should take that seriously and not rush to reopen massage parlors and football games.
We need actual testing of workers, with contact tracing and proper PPE and
then we can reopen as safely as possible without needless extra deaths.
We simply have not seen that on a mass scale here in the US yet.
Probably because we have labradoodle breeders and Jared Kusher in charge of such things instead of actual doctors and scientists.
What a shit show.
We don't have to be so cold triaging and killing people.
It's not obligatory, it's a choice.
