[BostonCard]

but if we can somehow get through the winter, we may be in a decent position going forward.

Herd immunity?  half joking.  Are you referring to the introduction of a vaccine or something else?

And yeah, I'm very surprised by the numbers...then again I'm no economist nor do I dabble in such areas.

Yes, I meant that a vaccine should start to become available by spring.  If you can vaccinate the most vulnerable early, you'd have more confidence that a strategy that relaxes restrictions but tries to protect vulnerable patients will not be doomed to fail.  That's my concern with the Great Barrington declaration, which underestimates the difficulty involved in isolating vulnerable populations.  If, instead, you can implement an immunological cordon sanitaire, you might feel better about letting case counts rise.

There is of course the issue that some otherwise healthy people will get very sick if enough people get the virus, and the fact likelihood that the vaccine will not be perfect, so I don't think you can throw caution to the wind entirely, but I think we'll have a very different reaction to another spike (if it happens) next summer if the vaccination program is underway.

BC

[BostonCard]

but if we can somehow get through the winter, we may be in a decent position going forward.

Herd immunity?  half joking.  Are you referring to the introduction of a vaccine or something else?

And yeah, I'm very surprised by the numbers...then again I'm no economist nor do I dabble in such areas.

Yes, I meant that a vaccine should start to become available by spring.  If you can vaccinate the most vulnerable early, you'd have more confidence that a strategy that relaxes restrictions but tries to protect vulnerable patients will not be doomed to fail.  That's my concern with the Great Barrington declaration, which underestimates the difficulty involved in isolating vulnerable populations.  If, instead, you can implement an immunological cordon sanitaire, you might feel better about letting case counts rise.

There is of course the issue that some otherwise healthy people will get very sick if enough people get the virus, and the fact likelihood that the vaccine will not be perfect, so I don't think you can throw caution to the wind entirely, but I think we'll have a very different reaction to another spike (if it happens) next summer if the vaccination program is underway.

BC