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Want to end the quarantine? St. Louis Fed leader says universal testing is the answer
stltoday.com ^ | April 14 2020 | David Nicklaus

Posted on 04/15/2020 9:18:27 AM PDT by rintintin

Universal testing for COVID-19 would be the best way to get the U.S. economy back up and running, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said Tuesday.

Bullard, speaking on a conference call organized by the St. Louis Regional Chamber, said closing nonessential businesses “is appropriate for now but it’s a crazy inefficient policy. You don’t really want to go back to this quarantine policy in the future if you don’t have to.”

He said that after coronavirus infection numbers start to drop, but without a vaccine available, the nation’s goal should be to get healthy workers back on the job while keeping the public safe.

“Widespread testing of everybody in the economy would put an end to this crisis,” Bullard added. “We can’t get there right now but this is costing us $25 billion a day.”

His comments come as President Donald Trump and several governors have formed task forces to talk about restarting the economy. So far, though, states don’t even have enough tests for people with known exposure to the coronavirus, let alone enough to test all workers.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told the Chamber last week that antibody tests, which determine if individuals have recovered from the new coronavirus strain, should be available for some by the end of the month and more widely by the end of the summer.

Bullard compared the task of producing hundreds of millions of test kits with the process of mobilizing the economy for war. “At these kinds of numbers you really want to ramp that up at all costs,” he said. “All businesses need these tests, households need these tests, schools need these tests. Everyone needs them because they need to know where the virus is to manage this going forward.”

(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: fakenews; jamesbullard
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To: maddog55

Two I wouldn’t bend over for any government mandated BS testing... It would never end and you’d be tested every time you went out of your house to any store, beach, park, game“

In the end it wouldn’t be govt mandated, it would be businesses that insisted on people being tested if they wanted to go in the business. You’d be free to stay untested - and not go in

This was made clear yesterday when the business people - ceos etc - that Trump met with said wider testing was needed for them to be able to open up and have a lot of customers. It wasn’t the government telling them, it was them telling the government


141 posted on 04/16/2020 7:29:43 AM PDT by rintintin (qu)
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To: rintintin

I appreciate the need for accuracy, but I’m wondering if antibody testing is being slow-walked...

BTW, I’ll be the first one in line with my arm out. There are people I love I can’t get near at the moment, and I think there’s a very good chance, given where I was in November and what I had in December, that I’ve had WuFlu already.

Sign me up.


142 posted on 04/16/2020 7:37:53 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: mewzilla

There are Freepers who have posted that they won’t get tested. They should think that through. If a test is available for everybody - unfortunately it isn’t yet - and somebody doesn’t take it and then infects other people, those victims could sue his house and savings away from him.


143 posted on 04/16/2020 7:45:27 AM PDT by rintintin (qu)
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To: rintintin

“ If we had universal testing - and isolated the people who tested positive until the virus left their systems - the virus would go away.”

Nope.

1. You have to test people literally everywhere they go, many times daily. This becomes Orwellian.

2. People will not quarantine themselves if they need to survive. So if you test positive, it’s off to government medical prison for you.

3. No testing is ever perfect...you will get many false positives and false negatives. So it spreads anyway.

Testing is a STUPID canard. It’s totalitarian AND ridiculously ineffective.

Get a treatment...oh! There is one. Produce it (instead of wasting time and energy on a stupid totalitarian testing regimen).

All this for a disease that’s going to likely kill less than 1% of its victims anyway? This is idiocy. If I get it and I die, I die. I can die on the freeway today just as easily. Open it up and we all take our chances...just like if we had to go to war.


144 posted on 04/16/2020 7:46:01 AM PDT by Scott from the Left Coast (It's the corruption, stupid)
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To: rintintin

Here’s another example: Hubby saw a very elderly lady in a grocery store. She was clearly stressed, bundled up in a scarf and wearing mittens. Because of her ersatz PPE she was struggling with getting her items. Hubby, even with his PPE, didn’t feel comfortable going near her to assist, so he went to find an employee to help her. If he knew he’d already had it, he could have offered her his assistance.


145 posted on 04/16/2020 7:49:46 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: Scott from the Left Coast

. You have to test people literally everywhere they go,”

Private businesses are going to require it. The government won’t necessarily force it on you, but business owners won’t let you work or shop at their places if you refuse to be tested for the virus. That’s simply common sense for them. They don’t want to be infected, or have their employees or customers infected. They’d risk being sued into oblivion if they didn’t take these precautions


146 posted on 04/16/2020 7:50:10 AM PDT by rintintin (qu)
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To: rintintin

For one I think most of these CEO’s etc will say anything needed to get back up and operating.

That type of testing wouldn’t last long either way. Few if any small businesses could afford the testing or the manpower to do it so you have a dilemma.. either everyone does it or nobody does it.

If everyone doesn’t do it then even the big corporations will be in a never ending testing cycle.

Herd immunity is the only way to resolve this. The majority get the disease, the majority survive, someone creates a vaccine and that saves the next generation.

All this stay in place has done is slow the inevitable and I still believe this is no worse than any other flu when it’s all said and done.

The economic impact to this country and the people who will lost everything will be far more devastating in cost and lives than this particular virus.


147 posted on 04/16/2020 7:51:12 AM PDT by maddog55
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To: maddog55

For one I think most of these CEO’s etc will say anything needed to get back up and operating.“

Except that they’re saying just the opposite - we can’t operate before widespread testing is implemented. That’s what they said yesterday.


148 posted on 04/16/2020 7:52:47 AM PDT by rintintin (qu)
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To: Scott from the Left Coast
Agree with you 100%.... but the government being the government I wouldn't be surprised if there's a TSA equivalent on the horizon called the VSA.. Virus Security Administration checking you before you sit down for a steak at Texas Roadhouse.

Enjoy your meal !!

149 posted on 04/16/2020 7:58:41 AM PDT by maddog55
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To: rintintin

Which is saying anything needed to get back up and operating.


150 posted on 04/16/2020 8:00:00 AM PDT by maddog55
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To: rintintin

If they do that, their business will fail. No one is going to stand in line for a test to go to a restaurant or go into Costco or go to a ballpark. Not happening. That essentially means that all business transactions of every kind...right down to buying a house or getting groceries becomes online or delivery. Totally impractical.


151 posted on 04/16/2020 9:13:41 AM PDT by Scott from the Left Coast (It's the corruption, stupid)
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To: American in Israel

“I would rather we had let this Flu run its natural course than surrender our future and freedom to the New World Order. Many Millions more die from Dictators than all the Viral Pandemics put together.”

Thanks for your voice of sanity in the midst of this madness.

That’s how we used to do it before covid and politics got injected into our national bloodstream by a political media and their democrat puppet masters desperate to inflict scandal on the Trump administration.


152 posted on 04/16/2020 11:34:57 AM PDT by aligncare ( Keep America Great! Trump/Pence 2020)
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To: rintintin

“ It would take a big commitment by government at all levels,”

I think it would take a BIG GOVERNMENT to do it, something most conservatives are rightly wary of.


153 posted on 04/16/2020 11:47:00 AM PDT by aligncare ( Keep America Great! Trump/Pence 2020)
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To: aligncare

I think it would take a BIG GOVERNMENT to do it, something most conservatives are rightly wary of.“

Feds made sure everyone in the country was vaccinated for polio and small pox. I’ve never met a conservative who objected.


154 posted on 04/16/2020 11:56:51 AM PDT by rintintin (qu)
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