[Genuine Realist]

People have talked about this like its a war, and that is a good analogy.  The problem is we aren't mobilizing like its a war.

There are 10+ million unemployed.  Let's deploy them to fight the virus.  Hire unemployed people to swab, run tests, contact trace, isolate, cook and deliver food to quarantined zones.  Even sewing masks.  Lots of factories are idling.  Let's use them to make PPE, ventilators, testing equipment (testing machines, etc), hospital beds, stuff that can be used to fight the virus.  We have lots of hotels are idle; use them to quarantine asymptomatic and lightly symptomatic patients.  Once those patients are recovered and virus free, let's recruit them to do jobs that require lots of person to person contact, let's harvest their plasma and use it (if that proves successful).

Instead, the attitude is, "meh, let's try to to minimize contagion, if you feel like it."  If this is a war, let's goddamned act like it.

BC

This seems to me a bit premature. This whole phenomenon has overtaken the nation (and the world) with astonishing speed. I was in New York, with my wife, on February 20th-24th - five productions in four days, crowded theaters, shoulder to shoulder. This was only seven weeks ago. Medical advice even then was along the lines of preparation for another conventional flu.  A few days later, I happened to be summoned into the Kaiser office of my primary care physician for a physical, since she hadn't seen me in a couple of years. She is conservative to the point of paranoia on health conditions. She dismissed Covid-19 with a shrug - 'wash your hands a lot and don't worry too much.' My surgeon daughter was similarly indifferent.

On March 5th - just 30 days ago - I attended a well-reviewed production of 'Chicago' in San Jose. Same crowded theater conditions. By then there wa nervousness, but the show sold out.Two days later I went to the movies, as it turns out for the last time in some time. All of the conference basketball tournaments were still scheduled, as well as the tournament before full arenas. This was only four weeks ago.

It's way too early to write history, but my sense is that, through the end of January, most of the nations and leaders of the world relied primarily on reports and information from China that turned out to be wildly inaccurate. (I'll pass on whether that was deliberate or not. This post is not political.) The border closings that occurred were widely criticized as unduly xenophobic. An Italian mayor suggested that his citizens go out and hug Chinese residents among them, to show the absence of hostility. The WHO put out a statement that panic was a greater danger than the virus. 

I think the history will show that this optimism began to disappear when Western physicians began to treat the virus and gather reliable data, particularly in Italy. Alarm bells began to go off, and ring louder and louder throughout February. By the end of the month, attitudes had hanged. Just about every authority recognized that a real crisis had arrived. But the gravity was still not completely appreciated. I mentioned that no events were canceled or re-scheduled through the first 10 days of March. This seems incredible looking back.

In the second week of March, my daughter began to receive reports that scared the hell out of her on my behalf. (I am 73, with a compromised immune system because of methotrexate, my treatment for arthritis.) She effectively ordered me into an extreme quarantine, in which state I've been living for the last 20 days. My impression is that the nation went into Defcon4 mode at about that time.

I don't think the response to this crisis has been laggard at all, if correlated with the growing awareness of the nature of the virus. I think it's been almost as fast as it could practically be. We did not go to a war time footing after Pearl Harbor in days, but months.  Not that speed is not of the essence, but there are limitations to how fast you can go. I believe delivery and in-home services are going to explode specatcularly. But you can't do that overnight. 

The inevitable attempts to politicize the mess leave me cold. You can single out Trump for various statements, but the same is true of Biden, Pelosi, and other Democrat leaders. Unity seems to me more important.

[Genuine Realist]

People have talked about this like its a war, and that is a good analogy.  The problem is we aren't mobilizing like its a war.

There are 10+ million unemployed.  Let's deploy them to fight the virus.  Hire unemployed people to swab, run tests, contact trace, isolate, cook and deliver food to quarantined zones.  Even sewing masks.  Lots of factories are idling.  Let's use them to make PPE, ventilators, testing equipment (testing machines, etc), hospital beds, stuff that can be used to fight the virus.  We have lots of hotels are idle; use them to quarantine asymptomatic and lightly symptomatic patients.  Once those patients are recovered and virus free, let's recruit them to do jobs that require lots of person to person contact, let's harvest their plasma and use it (if that proves successful).

Instead, the attitude is, "meh, let's try to to minimize contagion, if you feel like it."  If this is a war, let's goddamned act like it.

BC

This seems to me a bit premature. This whole phenomenon has overtaken the nation (and the world) with astonishing speed. I was in New York, with my wife, on February 20th-24th - five productions in four days, crowded theaters, shoulder to shoulder. This was only seven weeks ago. Medical advice even then was along the lines of preparation for another conventional flu.  A few days later, I happened to be summoned into the Kaiser office of my primary care physician for a physical, since she hadn't seen me in a couple of years. She is conservative to the point of paranoia on health conditions. She dismissed Covid-19 with a shrug - 'wash your hands a lot and don't worry too much.' My surgeon daughter was similarly indifferent.

On March 5th - just 30 days ago - I attended a well-reviewed production of 'Chicago' in San Jose. Same crowded theater conditions. By then there wa nervousness, but the show sold out.Two days later I went to the movies, as it turns out for the last time in some time. All of the conference basketball tournaments were still scheduled, as well as the tournament before full arenas. This was only four weeks ago.

It's way too early to write history, but my sense is that, through the end of January, most of the nations and leaders of the world relied primarily on reports and information from China that turned out to be wildly inaccurate. (I'll pass on whether that was deliberate or not. This post is not political.) The border closings that occurred were widely criticized as unduly xenophobic. An Italian mayor suggested that his citizens go out and hug Chinese residents among them, to show the absence of hostility. The WHO put out a statement that panic was a greater danger than the virus. 

I think the history will show that this optimism began to disappear when Western physicians began to treat the virus and gather reliable data, particularly in Italy. Alarm bells began to go off, and ring louder and louder throughout February. By the end of the month, attitudes had hanged. Just about every authority recognized that a real crisis had arrived. But the gravity was still not completely appreciated. I mentioned that no events were canceled or re-scheduled through the first 10 days of March. This seems incredible looking back.

In the second week of March, my daughter began to receive reports that scared the hell out of her on my behalf. (I am 73, with a compromised immune system because of methotrexate, my treatment for arthritis.) She effectively ordered me into an extreme quarantine, in which state I've been living for the last 20 days. My impression is that the nation went into Defcon4 mode at about that time.

I don't think the response to this crisis has been laggard at all, if correlated with the growing awareness of the nature of the virus. I think it's been almost as fast as it could practically be. We did not go to a war time footing after Pearl Harbor in days, but months.  Not that speed is not of the essence, but there are limitations to how fast you can go. I believe delivery and in-home services are going to explode specatcularly. But you can't do that overnight. 

The inevitable attempts to politicize the mess leave me cold. You can single out Trump for various statements, but the same is true of Biden, Pelosi, and other Democrat leaders. Unity seems to me more important.