[Goose]

And HC seems to be a pretty clear line that people can see, track, and understand.  You want to be able to ensure that people who need hospital care to recover from the virus to receive it.  (And in fact, I believe that is ultimately what all the "we must crush the curve" folks use as basis for demanding same - i.e., if we don't crush the curve then we risk Hospital Armageddon, eventually, when we open thing up).  Well, we haven't "crushed the curve" and HC has been remarkably good (and ridiculously good in SCC, throughout the entire time period).

Yes it has. The people getting sick are generally young and don't go to the hospital. The care for the people who do go to the hospital is much better because of lessons learned. We are pretty "stable" in our current configuration. Most "old people" are still staying home and being careful. It is true that more people are dying (deaths per 100K) than in most other countries, but apparently we are OK with that. As we open up more things cases will go up and more people will die. As long as there is still room in the hospitals, it appears people will be OK with that too.
The problem is that deaths is a "lagging indicator". We can be OK there and have a bunch of cases already getting sick that aren't in the system yet. We can then go from OK to hospital overload in a two week interval, and no action taken in that interval can have any effect. These people are already sick, we just don't know it. Can we avoid that situation? Maybe, but only by being more cautious than most people want. I wouldn't bet on it.

[Goose]

And HC seems to be a pretty clear line that people can see, track, and understand.  You want to be able to ensure that people who need hospital care to recover from the virus to receive it.  (And in fact, I believe that is ultimately what all the "we must crush the curve" folks use as basis for demanding same - i.e., if we don't crush the curve then we risk Hospital Armageddon, eventually, when we open thing up).  Well, we haven't "crushed the curve" and HC has been remarkably good (and ridiculously good in SCC, throughout the entire time period).

Yes it has. The people getting sick are generally young and don't go to the hospital. The care for the people who do go to the hospital is much better because of lessons learned. We are pretty "stable" in our current configuration. Most "old people" are still staying home and being careful. It is true that more people are dying (deaths per 100K) than in most other countries, but apparently we are OK with that. As we open up more things cases will go up and more people will die. As long as there is still room in the hospitals, it appears people will be OK with that too.
The problem is that deaths is a "lagging indicator". We can be OK there and have a bunch of cases already getting sick that aren't in the system yet. We can then go from OK to hospital overload in a two week interval, and no action taken in that interval can have any effect. These people are already sick, we just don't know it. Can we avoid that situation? Maybe, but only by being more cautious than most people want. I wouldn't bet on it.