04-05-2020, 12:05 AM
Essential industries are still operating, so it's not as if the entire economy has tanked. There are a lot of people still at work keeping the lights on and the water running (and the shelves stocked and the hospitals staffed, and the garbage collected, etc.).
Most of the vocal isolation critics in my facebook feed have begun championing Sweden's approach...which is basically "recommended" government guidelines on distancing, reducing maximum gathering numbers, only allowing table seating at restaurants. It seems that some of the Swede population reads currents events as many have voluntarily stopped using public transport and are likely working from home.
These piecemeal attempts at containment or curve-bending will ultimately prove futile as the R0 value for SARS-CoV-2 seems to grow higher the more becomes known about how this virus spreads. There is an anecdote from Singapore about how one post office worker came into work with symptoms (!!) and infected eight coworkers. An R0 value of 8 would be...pretty bad.
Again, I'll mention that all economists who have sounded the alarm about an impending recession have *not* recommended easing restrictions until the curve has flattened and virus tests/vaccines are available. A collapse of American hospitals would be a catastrophe of greater economic and moral impact.
Yeah it's bad, but it's what we have to do now since we wasted Jan/Feb while the virus swept through the nation. This is the price of inaction.
Most of the vocal isolation critics in my facebook feed have begun championing Sweden's approach...which is basically "recommended" government guidelines on distancing, reducing maximum gathering numbers, only allowing table seating at restaurants. It seems that some of the Swede population reads currents events as many have voluntarily stopped using public transport and are likely working from home.
These piecemeal attempts at containment or curve-bending will ultimately prove futile as the R0 value for SARS-CoV-2 seems to grow higher the more becomes known about how this virus spreads. There is an anecdote from Singapore about how one post office worker came into work with symptoms (!!) and infected eight coworkers. An R0 value of 8 would be...pretty bad.
Again, I'll mention that all economists who have sounded the alarm about an impending recession have *not* recommended easing restrictions until the curve has flattened and virus tests/vaccines are available. A collapse of American hospitals would be a catastrophe of greater economic and moral impact.
Yeah it's bad, but it's what we have to do now since we wasted Jan/Feb while the virus swept through the nation. This is the price of inaction.