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There is an alternative: locking down until testing can be significantly ramped up. This wouldn't need to take more than a month or two. The cost to test even

There is an alternative: locking down until testing can be significantly ramped up. This wouldn't need to take more than a month or two. The cost to test even everyone in the population on a weekly basis is much, much lower than the cost of being locked down, and once that infrastructure was in place, other measures could be dropped, because we would know and could isolate only those who are infected (symptomatic or not). Edit: I should add that ramping up testing may take longer than that. I'm not an expert; just going by what I've read. Even so though, we should definitely aim to scale up testing as much as possible; the better our testing, the less restrictive and long-lasting isolation measures will need to be.

enchiridion 7y ago
This is a great idea. The first thing that has given me hope since this set in.
- tempestn 7y ago
  Got the idea from here: https://medium.com/@yishan/free-widespread-testing-is-the-only-way-america-goes-back-to-normal-952ee9201dd https://medium.com/@yishan/free-widespread-testing-is-the-on...
dwaltrip 7y ago
This simple and brilliant. I hope plans like this are being worked in by those in power.
0xffff2 7y ago
>This wouldn't need to take more than a month or two. Two months of this is going to be the beginning of the next depression.
- tempestn 7y ago
  It's going to be a recession, certainly. In the Great Depression there weren't significant stimulus measures taken though, until the stimulus provided by the war. Governments have already made it clear they're going to throw a lot of resources at the economic side of this, so I expect a couple months would be really bad, and some businesses will definitely fail (some already have), but not Depression level bad.
stjohnswarts 7y ago
I'm fine with locking down if the government will man up and pause mortgage/rent/larger bills because I can't afford 3 months+ of this because I'll be out on the street.
- jpindar 7y ago
  Some states are not allowing evictions, foreclosures, or utility disconnections at least for the time being. How long this will last, and what happens afterward is yet to be determined.

enchiridion 7y ago

This is a great idea. The first thing that has given me hope since this set in.

tempestn 7y ago
Got the idea from here: https://medium.com/@yishan/free-widespread-testing-is-the-only-way-america-goes-back-to-normal-952ee9201dd https://medium.com/@yishan/free-widespread-testing-is-the-on...

dwaltrip 7y ago

This simple and brilliant. I hope plans like this are being worked in by those in power.

0xffff2 7y ago

>This wouldn't need to take more than a month or two. Two months of this is going to be the beginning of the next depression.

tempestn 7y ago
It's going to be a recession, certainly. In the Great Depression there weren't significant stimulus measures taken though, until the stimulus provided by the war. Governments have already made it clear they're going to throw a lot of resources at the economic side of this, so I expect a couple months would be really bad, and some businesses will definitely fail (some already have), but not Depression level bad.

stjohnswarts 7y ago

I'm fine with locking down if the government will man up and pause mortgage/rent/larger bills because I can't afford 3 months+ of this because I'll be out on the street.

jpindar 7y ago
Some states are not allowing evictions, foreclosures, or utility disconnections at least for the time being. How long this will last, and what happens afterward is yet to be determined.