I disagree. Keeping productive people cooped up and the engine shut down will not bring us closer to treatments or cures. IMO, we need the engine in gear to make finding cures and treatments that much easier so we can distribute help to those in need that much faster.
As I understand, shutting down for two weeks—until Easter will make it a month—was to “flatten the curve” so the system would not be overwhelmed. Flattening the curve does not stop the contagion nor end the dying. It makes it manageable until we can get ahead of it.
We have a good picture of who is most susceptible to the illness (the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions that the virus claims), how to avoid it (take precautions for avoiding the flu, since it spreads along those paths), what to do if you present symptoms (get a test and let the medicos know who you are in contact with), and some idea of what can be done to treat it (the President is encouraged by physician-administered chloroquine treatment and there are positive signs in that direction).
We’re fortunate that the material machinery of our economy is not wrecked (the way it was in the South during our nation’s greatest crisis). But the machine cannot long remain idle before idleness itself takes a toll upon it. (It needs to be maintained).
Suppose we never find a cure? The common cold has no cure! So many cancers don’t! We can’t stay-in-place forever. Idling the economy past Easter strains serious credulity, IMO, and will begin to make it more difficult to recover when we finally do.
I think we need to get the engine going again, soon, to make the recovery in all areas faster and more effective.
And not that anyone needs to believe, but I think this chart puts into better context of what I’m trying to say. As diseases go, this is my yardstick for “existential threats.”
Covid-19 hardly registers. Admittedly, it is new. But we know so much more about how to contain, treat, and cure diseases than our ancestors did.
“ I think we need to get the engine going again, soon, to make the recovery in all areas faster and more effective.”
That would be optimum, but it is probably impossible. 95% - at the least - of the public would disagree...vehemently. Once an effective treatment is developed and the fear is reduced...then it becomes possible. The fear is too great and voices against that fear will remain unheard and unconsidered..
If Trump and the Republicans tried that prior to the overwhelming fear being overcome by events...they would lose every single election in November, they’d become the Whigs overnight. Even Joe Biden would win 50 states. You cannot govern against the overwhelming will of the people on a matter this critically important.
