Originally Posted by Michael:
We have weapons, they are called masks, sanitization, our immune systems, testing, drugs that are showing promise, a healthcare system and a national effort to control this virus. If you are currently wearing a mask and going to the store to buy groceries, you are on the frontline combating the contraction of COVID-19. You can use the same protection to go anywhere else as you normally would with some exceptions. Staying in your home to keep yourself alive is extreme and can only last for so long. Would you consider never driving your car if you knew no one would die in car accidents ever again? I think the answer would be-no.
A destroyed economy means a destroyed America. That picture would produce civil unrest and unraveling the fabric of society. That would create a type of devastation that no war has ever produced in America in history.
Even with our best economy with a great GDP, we were still at our max debt of $23 trillion to GDP before this virus struck. We just added another two trillion and could well reach $6 trillion total by the end of the year. What makes this situation even worse is our GDP is now down 30% this quarter and getting worse. How do we pay down our debt? Answer-at this rate we never will.
If this current evaporation of our economy continues beyond six months, we will become a country controlled by a centralized government—meaning the government will own or control the private sector. Capitalism as we know it will cease to exist.
The federal reserve can not buy our economy. No one is saying that we should go back to doing things as before but we must adapt our economy to the challenges this virus creates.
Bottom line-big cities will economically collapse under quarantine. States and rural communities that are have natural distancing will survive or thrive.
The world was not prepared for this virus. The biggest error early on was with the government task force stating that face masks don’t work. We were left without protect for several weeks while the virus was able to spread. Face masks do work, sanitizing works and we should be going about our business now with these tools/weapons.
Now with testing, it appears that we have a somewhat better understanding of the mortality rate which may be much lower then previously feared. Many more seem to have already had this virus and were Asymptomatic and can now be counted. Finding and notifying those that are immune is an important metric to know. We must protect those that are vulnerable to this disease but that should not include stopping life for everyone else.
Ugh truth for sure.
One thing I do disagree with is that we have a healthcare system. We also don't have an emergency response system or a postmortem system to accommodate the ones afflicted by this virus.
If we are to return to "normal" in the sense that most go back to work, stores, sports venues, conventions, gambling etc., then we also need to understand that the medical systems need to go back to normal too.
The paramedics, doctors, nurses, morticians, aides, home health workers etc. need to go back to normal. This not only means working normal hours and carrying normal case loads, but also that if they don't have the equipment to protect themselves they do not work at all. period.
Are we ready to say to the public... we can't receive you at this hospital because the staff is already serving it's normal load... we can't receive you at this hospital because the staff doesn't have ppe.... we can't receive you at this hospital because the staff is serving our non covid clients for surgeries, outpatient procedures, testing and elective services wherein the hospital makes the profits it needs to stay afloat.... we can't receive you at this hospital because our staff must have time off as they did before.
We can't receive your loved ones body after death because the funeral homes and mortuaries are at normal capacity. We don't want full capacity because the staff has to go back to normal average work hours. We can't respond to your 911 calls because our workers have vacation time they need to use up before years end.
You need any of the above services and we can't normally oblige... it's up to YOU to source services in another county or even another state where (as one poster above stated) the doctors and nurses are having their hours cut and the hospitals are near empty. You have to source a service to manage your loved ones body after death.
If we are going back to normal then the healthcare system MUST be able to go back to normal too. This means denying services without hesitation if taking the ill and dead means it interrupts their normal case loads and normal work hours. This means denying services if the health care workers do not have more than adequate PPE.
From where I sit, I can't see not having the whole spectrum of healthcare mirror what is done in society. We will need these healthcare workers and services when this is over with. Let's make sure the expectations for them returns to normal when society does.
I don't know... it's a ridiculous idea but I can't see past how we can do one without the other. We have applauded health care workers as heroes but we need to allow them
back into the role of just workers so they aren't expected to do more... go above and beyond.