DV, I think you might agree with this.....there's a reason we call them "experts". Amiright? And we still have fools (Rand Paul, Dan "Tyranny" Crenshaw) worried about their constituents' vote by not denying their right to catch or transmit a deadly disease. FREEDOM! As for helping Trump's re-election? He could still cheat his way to the win. I don't doubt it. But sometimes the cheat won't even help.
This is a nice idea in theory, but it doesn't work in reality. The entire world combined, in 6 months, hasn't conducted even 200 million tests. I'm not sure how anyone would realistically expect to conduct 330 million tests in 10 days. Not to mention, that might isolate and eradicate it once in the US. It's still all over the globe - as soon as a handful of people get it again, the whole cycle will start over. Everything we're doing relies on some degree of immunity to slow this thing down. There's just no real way around that. But given that 10 million people have contracted it worldwide, and there are virtually no reports of people having it twice (maybe one or two unexplained cases), fortunately, it does seem like immunity exists.
Good points, and I'll add: the main test (based on PCR technology) has a good number of flawed results (not a huge % but not a tiny % of false verdicts). So even if you tested the entire country (and never mind the millions of people who wouldn't trust a government testing plan), millions of people would end up thinking they had the virus when they did not, and millions of others would think they were worry free when they actually could be carrying it and spreading it. It seems there's only one play: Mitigation, to whatever extent possible, until therapeutics and/or vaccination save our asses.
10 million reported cases. Likely tens of millions worldwide. While testing everyone at once is impractical, I appreciate @IBTL's idea. Massive testing is definitely needed, along with contact tracing. Every person going back to work, in what I hope are eventually massive numbers, should be tested first two weeks before, and then shortly before returning to work, in my opinion. Masks and social distancing have to be a requirement. I understand that some jobs require close proximity, so very high quality masks and frequent testing are a must. When a vaccine is ultimately produced that works, that'll change everything. That can't happen soon enough for me. We're both retired, with a house and a yard, but I want to safely get out as much as everyone else.
Vaccines still only work if antibody immunity works. My argument was addressing what to do if you can't be immune to this thing - ie, the common cold. In that scenario, testing/tracing/etc is all pretty much futile, except to maybe slightly slow it down - but its just like trying to slow down a common cold. If people can just get it again, it means it will just go in circles and you can't eradicate it, and it means elderly people, for example, are in permanent quarantine for years. In that scenario, you have to simply hope the virus becomes less lethal over time and that therapeutic drugs are developed to make it less-bad (like Tamiflu).
I guess the early case study we DO have right now is - why are cases scaling so poorly in places like Houston, vs other large cities where even LARGER protests occurred.
Fingers crossed that it becomes no worse than common flu, eventually. I get every vaccine known to man (not counting those I would get when traveling to certain countries) and have managed to stick around this long. Covid-19, before someone says it, is NOT "the flu." It is vastly worse and we/science are still attempting to understand it. We desperately need a vaccine. Soonest.
Ok. you agree then we should test. Some viruses have been eradicated but the mix of asymptomatic along with contagious probably makes it tough here
Well, I'm not sure about the "pee" part (ha ha!), but an easy to understand sign telling people to wear a mask attached to every stop sign in Texas, and elsewhere, is an excellent idea. Have the kind similar to the "ice on road" signs that fold down and display when there might be ice on a road or freeway, and fold back up when it's safe. Have a pandemic outbreak? Display the mask sign!
If vaccines don't work we have to look at it like the AIDS model. Multi pronged therapies that allow us to live with it. One positive is that since people are recovering shows that our immune systems can fight it. Even if we can't get longterm immunity it's possible short term immunity through a vaccine and ways of strengthening the immune system might be the way to do it.
I completely agree with everything you said. It really is mind boggling that a decent-sized percentage of our population refuses to trust science and medical experts. Do they also not trust plumbers when their home has a leak? Mechanics when their car breaks down? Roofers to repair a failing roof? Their refusal to listen to public health experts during the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic will never make sense to me.
Except that in Minnesota where these protest started we aren't seeing a major rise. Things look somewhat flat and have declined from a peak in mid May. The MN Health community was warning the protests could lead to more spread and were encouraging people to wear masks. From what I saw only about half of the people at protests wearing masks and there was no social distance. On top of the protests many people came out to help with clean up after the riots. It's been more than a month now since the protests started and most of the protests were in the overwhelmingly most populated part of the state with many coming in from other parts of the state and even other states to protest. It seems like if this was a factor we would be seeing a spike in new cases in MN but we're not.
Montgomery County has its biggest increase in cases... and no mandatory masks according to county judge (natch, posting on facebook). Because individuals can make the decision... Montgomery County logs largest daily boost in COVID-19 cases with 105 https://www.yourconroenews.com/neig...cnfeeds&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
So...tell me why we can't roam free and pantsless again? I use toilets. The chances of me pissing on someone is ~ -5%! We're all responsible thinking adults here people.
