This new virus it certainly being devastating. The personal tragedies of people who are sick and lose love ones to the virus it’s certainly heartbreaking. But the bigger picture needs to be looked at. It’s a virus, and it will spread through the community until there is some level of herd immunity. When everybody stays home and practices all this extreme social distancing, the community stays at square one with mass vulnerability. So when things open up, there is naturally going to be a big surge in infections. In the meantime the economy is going downhill, possibly even heading into a depression.
The medical/epidemic experts have a narrow view on how deal with the situation. Unfortunately, the situation is more than just this virus. Policy needs to look at the national economy, local economies personal economies, overall community well-being and overall personal well being in addition to preventing deaths from the virus. Domestic violence calls have increased about 15% since everybody was told to stay home. The law of unintended consequences applies. There are many costs that have not been considered or factored in.
1. Paper and cloth masks are extremely ineffective in anything other than a casual brief encounter in an unconfined space. Small particles get through, in both directions, linger in the air and get sucked right into somebody else’s face.
2. While there are some exceptions, the gargantuan proportion of deaths is elderly (+65) people with underlying medical conditions, and younger people with multiple underlying medical conditions. If the desire is to reduce deaths, then this portion of the society needs to be isolated and protected to no end. Doing so would be less damaging economically.
3. The only practical way to stop the spread is develop herd immunity. This is accomplished through either community spread or vaccination. Protection through vaccination is a long time away - not just developing a vaccine, but producing and distributing it. Herd immunity. on the other hand, can be achieved in a few months. in fact there are communities which have already developed it.
There are scientists and medical people who are advocating for stronger protections of the high risk population and developing herd immunity.
This research here indicates heard immunity could be achieved much sooner without waiting for a vaccine:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8518493/Covid-19-herd-immunity-develop-20-study-claims.html
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