[2006alum]

Also, I want policymakers to know and articulate what the goal should be.  AFAICT, the policy goal to date is "flattening the curve."  Okay.  I get that.  I think everyone does.  But what's the ultimate goal?  Just to  have a lower curve . . . forever?  The numbers are going to go up whenever you lift restrictions.  The goal should be to ramp treatment capacity to better be able to deal with the increased numbers that are going to come when restrictions are lifted (though I submit that due to self-regulation, even with a lessening of restrictions, the spread rate will NOT be as high as initially feared).   Is that the policy?  Is there a stated policy or goal or roadmap here?  If so, I haven't seen/heard it (though I admittedly tune out of daily news as it's too depressing).

I totally agree with this, which is why I, along with several others, keep repeating that we need widespread testing, implementation of an effective social contact tracing system, and mandatory isolation. Testing, tracing, isolation. It's been a mantra among public health officials for weeks if not months. 

And some of us having been losing our marbles wondering why this hasn't been happening for months, like it did in South Korea. And Iceland is showing that a complete lockdown is not necessary if we can effectively test and isolate, because they're finding that close to 50% of positive diagnoses are asymptomatic at the time of testing:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/tfoale/status/1245941802181550080?s=20[/tweet]
That means that until we can test everyone, half of carriers may be going undetected.

However, I'm not surprised there's no ultimate goal stated at the federal level, because the head of our government doesn't seem to believe in forward looking goals, just ex post blaming others and taking credit when things go right. He actually said that we'd get to April and then the virus would just "magically disappear." 

However, my ultimate concern is that this not just a national problem but a global one, and certainly not a state and local one, so there will have to be a coordinated national (and international) response for this to be effective. The alternative would have to be a year-long travel and import ban.

[2006alum]

Also, I want policymakers to know and articulate what the goal should be.  AFAICT, the policy goal to date is "flattening the curve."  Okay.  I get that.  I think everyone does.  But what's the ultimate goal?  Just to  have a lower curve . . . forever?  The numbers are going to go up whenever you lift restrictions.  The goal should be to ramp treatment capacity to better be able to deal with the increased numbers that are going to come when restrictions are lifted (though I submit that due to self-regulation, even with a lessening of restrictions, the spread rate will NOT be as high as initially feared).   Is that the policy?  Is there a stated policy or goal or roadmap here?  If so, I haven't seen/heard it (though I admittedly tune out of daily news as it's too depressing).

I totally agree with this, which is why I, along with several others, keep repeating that we need widespread testing, implementation of an effective social contact tracing system, and mandatory isolation. Testing, tracing, isolation. It's been a mantra among public health officials for weeks if not months. 

And some of us having been losing our marbles wondering why this hasn't been happening for months, like it did in South Korea. And Iceland is showing that a complete lockdown is not necessary if we can effectively test and isolate, because they're finding that close to 50% of positive diagnoses are asymptomatic at the time of testing:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/tfoale/status/1245941802181550080?s=20[/tweet]
That means that until we can test everyone, half of carriers may be going undetected.

However, I'm not surprised there's no ultimate goal stated at the federal level, because the head of our government doesn't seem to believe in forward looking goals, just ex post blaming others and taking credit when things go right. He actually said that we'd get to April and then the virus would just "magically disappear." 

However, my ultimate concern is that this not just a national problem but a global one, and certainly not a state and local one, so there will have to be a coordinated national (and international) response for this to be effective. The alternative would have to be a year-long travel and import ban.