I think the only way to start re-opening would be if the USA can accept that there will still be cases and deaths. I know this sounds morbid but the virus is not gone. The goal of the shut downs was to flatten the curve for the health care system, not to prevent deaths. I think many people will be protesting we should keep the SIP/SAH going until next year. I will be curious how the US government handles this. It is very political.
Yes the original rationale was to keep systems from being overwhelmed, not that there would be zero deaths. It has morphed into a fear of even being outdoors breathing air .There are now some very questionable civil liberties being trampled on without good data - we still don't know about viral load, it is
theorized not
proven a/pre-symptomatic are super spreaders nor for how long, it is
theorized that the virus is airborne
and infectious. A perfect condition laboratory test is pretty worthless. If the virus IS that infectious wouldn't you think 1- more would be testing positive now? 2-Even on cruise ships 17-60% positive(and the 60% from a much smaller population/ship)-why not 70-80-100%? 3-It IS that infectious just not as deadly when not overwhelmed with tons of "primary" cases, or only at higher viral loads (like unprotected health care workers). or maybe there really are a couple different strains that have different outcomes/infectious rates?
With peaks predicted earlier, predicted death toll declining, hospitalizations flattening/declining it appears that we are achieving that goal-YAY!! That's good news. But now how many people are still with an attitude of "not opening anything until a vaccine is here" camp? It will be interesting to watch as other nations open up and see the result.
"Lack of testing left officials blind to the true extent of the outbreak, and they still don’t have a good handle on it. "<-------THIS right here is the biggest holdup right now.
Perhaps cautious loosening where there aren't hot spots or possibility of being overwhelmed? The entire country isn't the hot spot NY is (thankfully, and hopefully NY is also past the worst as well!), so perhaps it shouldn't all be treated the same.
@TravelTime truly hit the nail on head with it being political and in some cases-monkey see monkey do or it looks bad.
www.seattletimes.com
www.cnn.com
