[oldalum]

For my two cents, we should reopen entirely, with the regulatory environment . . .

Maybe I am misinterpreting what this means, but I fear this would come at the expense of the health care system and especially health care workers, by reigniting exponential growth in infections in many areas, overwhelming local health care systems. The New York City experience should not be repeated anywhere. There are areas that are already at full capacity right now. I'd be more with you if we had adequate numbers of trained personnel and hospital resources, and more-than-adequate PPE for them, but I don't think we do in many places. I think mass indoor gatherings, and probably mass outdoor gatherings (shoulder to shoulder) without masks should continue to be prohibited until we see what happens with resumption of other economic activity. At a minimum if enough people don't participate in an activity in accordance with regulations, the activity should be prohibited. But in general I think you're right in that we don't really know what level of effectiveness will be achieved with the regulatory environment and the range of measures people will voluntarily take; it may be turn out to be a generally acceptable accommodation to a higher but stable rate of infections. It may be that people like me will effectively continue to do mostly SiP indefinitely until a vaccine is available. I also don't know what to think about the people who refuse to take any precautions to keep themselves or others from being infected: are they really very few and unimportant? Will they achieve herd immunity among themselves while inflicting collateral damage on others along the way?

[oldalum]

For my two cents, we should reopen entirely, with the regulatory environment . . .

Maybe I am misinterpreting what this means, but I fear this would come at the expense of the health care system and especially health care workers, by reigniting exponential growth in infections in many areas, overwhelming local health care systems. The New York City experience should not be repeated anywhere. There are areas that are already at full capacity right now. I'd be more with you if we had adequate numbers of trained personnel and hospital resources, and more-than-adequate PPE for them, but I don't think we do in many places. I think mass indoor gatherings, and probably mass outdoor gatherings (shoulder to shoulder) without masks should continue to be prohibited until we see what happens with resumption of other economic activity. At a minimum if enough people don't participate in an activity in accordance with regulations, the activity should be prohibited. But in general I think you're right in that we don't really know what level of effectiveness will be achieved with the regulatory environment and the range of measures people will voluntarily take; it may be turn out to be a generally acceptable accommodation to a higher but stable rate of infections. It may be that people like me will effectively continue to do mostly SiP indefinitely until a vaccine is available. I also don't know what to think about the people who refuse to take any precautions to keep themselves or others from being infected: are they really very few and unimportant? Will they achieve herd immunity among themselves while inflicting collateral damage on others along the way?