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Universal vaccination, with mandates as necessary. Distribution (and enforcement) of N95 masks. Rebuilding schools with sufficient ventilation. WFH as the de

Universal vaccination, with mandates as necessary. Distribution (and enforcement) of N95 masks. Rebuilding schools with sufficient ventilation. WFH as the default. Hospitality moves outside. Restrictions as necessary to keep R below one until suppression/elimination has been achieved.

dehrmann 5y ago
> keep R below one until suppression/elimination has been achieved This likely isn't possible. R0 would only low because of the restrictions, so as soon as you ease up on them, it starts spreading again. What you're proposing was the April 2020 fantasy that if we just flatten the curve, cases will be gone by September.
- somewhereoutth 5y ago
  So you get it to zero, or to low enough to test trace isolate. China is a good example of how this can work.
  - marssaxman 5y ago
    If Chinese-style totalitarianism is the means necessary for an elimination strategy, I'd much rather take my chances with the disease. I do not understand why people think it is reasonable to expect that humanity can completely control diseases. That has never been the case. Disease is a fact of life. We get better and better at managing our responses, as we learn more, but we can only reduce, never eliminate the risk.
    - somewhereoutth 5y ago
      Disease was a fact of life -but since antibiotics and vaccines we live much more disease free than we did before. Covid is reversing this progress. We do not have to become totalitarian to stamp out Covid, we just have to enforce the necessary policies for a limited and specific circumstance. I'd like to think our democratic institutions are capable of doing so in this instance, as they did so in previous times.
remarkEon 5y ago
I disagree in varying degrees with all of your points, but I'm going to pick on this one because it speaks to a certain elitism and bubble thinking that's been increasingly rampant on this topic. >WFH as the default. The percentage of the population that can actually do this is much smaller than I think people realize. That percentage is highly over-represented on this website because we're part of the Laptop Class, and privileged as such. Regular people in the vast majority of the country, working hourly wage jobs and the like, cannot do this. Manufacturing, what's left of it in this country, cannot do this (fanciful aspirations of an impending automation revolution aside for a moment, and hey someone has to manufacture and install the robots). This is to say nothing of the fact that most people who aren't wealthy do not have the space at home to facilitate actually working from there.
- somewhereoutth 5y ago
  Many regular people work in offices, talking to a computer. Indeed it is offices that cause the most transmission risk, as they tend to be small and ill ventilated. Certainly WFH can be the default in those cases. Of course, this detracts from the social performative aspect of work - bosses with the corner office and so forth.
refurb 5y ago
You realize this will not get us to zero Covid? You’re basically trying to stamp out the common cold (same virus, Covid-19 being more severe) which has been with us..forever?
- somewhereoutth 5y ago
  Not the same virus, but a similar virus. As much as we would like to wish, Covid is not going to become the common cold anytime soon, or indeed ever. We should act according to what we see with Covid, and understand that any naïve attempts reduce it to other known pathogens can only lead us into tragedy.

dehrmann 5y ago

> keep R below one until suppression/elimination has been achieved This likely isn't possible. R0 would only low because of the restrictions, so as soon as you ease up on them, it starts spreading again. What you're proposing was the April 2020 fantasy that if we just flatten the curve, cases will be gone by September.

somewhereoutth 5y ago
So you get it to zero, or to low enough to test trace isolate. China is a good example of how this can work.
- marssaxman 5y ago
  If Chinese-style totalitarianism is the means necessary for an elimination strategy, I'd much rather take my chances with the disease. I do not understand why people think it is reasonable to expect that humanity can completely control diseases. That has never been the case. Disease is a fact of life. We get better and better at managing our responses, as we learn more, but we can only reduce, never eliminate the risk.
  - somewhereoutth 5y ago
    Disease was a fact of life -but since antibiotics and vaccines we live much more disease free than we did before. Covid is reversing this progress. We do not have to become totalitarian to stamp out Covid, we just have to enforce the necessary policies for a limited and specific circumstance. I'd like to think our democratic institutions are capable of doing so in this instance, as they did so in previous times.

remarkEon 5y ago

I disagree in varying degrees with all of your points, but I'm going to pick on this one because it speaks to a certain elitism and bubble thinking that's been increasingly rampant on this topic. >WFH as the default. The percentage of the population that can actually do this is much smaller than I think people realize. That percentage is highly over-represented on this website because we're part of the Laptop Class, and privileged as such. Regular people in the vast majority of the country, working hourly wage jobs and the like, cannot do this. Manufacturing, what's left of it in this country, cannot do this (fanciful aspirations of an impending automation revolution aside for a moment, and hey someone has to manufacture and install the robots). This is to say nothing of the fact that most people who aren't wealthy do not have the space at home to facilitate actually working from there.

somewhereoutth 5y ago
Many regular people work in offices, talking to a computer. Indeed it is offices that cause the most transmission risk, as they tend to be small and ill ventilated. Certainly WFH can be the default in those cases. Of course, this detracts from the social performative aspect of work - bosses with the corner office and so forth.

refurb 5y ago

You realize this will not get us to zero Covid? You’re basically trying to stamp out the common cold (same virus, Covid-19 being more severe) which has been with us..forever?

somewhereoutth 5y ago
Not the same virus, but a similar virus. As much as we would like to wish, Covid is not going to become the common cold anytime soon, or indeed ever. We should act according to what we see with Covid, and understand that any naïve attempts reduce it to other known pathogens can only lead us into tragedy.