I have no problem with stay home from school orders. Getting kids out of public school is a win-win situation. I’m referring to closing businesses. If Washington just closed everything 6 days ago, I don’t think that was responsible for lowering their numbers. We need to talk more about their testing and contact tracing. I read something about them doing it early on.
The main models I have in mind are the Asian countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan. I think some of them definitely closed schools but there weren’t strict business closures from what I read. I don’t think they did anything that remotely required a big spending bill.
I have never argued for doing nothing. I’ve most often argued in favor of the South Korean response. But the numbers show that the outbreak subsides EVERYWHERE across the board, no matter what kind of response. That tells me that the most common denominator method, the old, tried-and-true quarantining of the sick and the incoming travelers is what’s doing the trick more than anything else.
This shutdown/social distancing model was trying to prevent the initial outbreak. That has SEVERAL problems. If you wait until you have initial cases like they did, you’re already too late. If you do start it early, you may never be able to stop, because as soon as you stop, you will then get your initial cases and have your outbreak. And lastly, it comes at an enormous economic cost that no one thought was justifiable unless these predictions of millions of deaths were actually going to happen. And now the argument becomes circular. The evidence shows that those mass deaths do NOT occur anywhere, most likely because of simple, old-fashioned, traditional methods of quarantine.
The governor shut things down much later than the businesses and churches did. Microsoft, google, etc. had people working from home much earlier.
Our large church (Bellevue) had our last service on March 1st, and three days later shut everything down. All of the stuff going on during the week, services, etc.
They are still allowed to use the church to livestream and record the services. A few band members, singers and a preacher - all spaced at least 6 feet apart.