hippesthippo wrote:Catchall wrote:bwgood77 wrote:Florida may end up leading the charge in re-opening things, so he may be in luck to have more to do.
It depends on what the goal is.
If the goal is to "flatten the curve" to prevent local hospital resources from being overwhelmed, then this can be solved simply by increasing hospital resources in areas with high rates of infection. Hence, those who need hospitalization and intensive care can receive it without impediment.
If the goal is to prevent the majority of people from getting infected in the first place, then yes, you'd have to maintain measures for social distancing until there is an effective treatment. This could be a year or more away.
Originally, the goal was just to flatten the curve in order to prevent hospitals from being overrun with patients.
Flattening the curve may be the goal on a national level, but my goal is making sure my loved ones and I stay alive. I think this is a common sentiment. Thankfully, they mostly coincide with each other.
If you're serious about protecting your family and taking measures to prevent them from being exposed to this and similar viruses, you might consider moving out of a densely populated urban area.
Example:
Number of people hospitalized for Covid19 in Utah: 200 (state population 3.1 million)
Cases per 1 million population: 70
Number of people hospitalized for Covid19 in Montana: 21 (state population 1.1 million)
Cases per 1 million population: 20
Number of people hospitalized for Covid19 in New York: 19,000 (state population 19.4 million)
Cases per 1 million population: 980
In other words, for every confirmed case of covid in Utah per 1 million population, there are 14 cases in New York--the infection rate is currently 14x higher in New York. There are also a lot of other cases that have not be confirmed.
In addition to population density, there are other factors such as international travel from high-risk areas like China and India that increase risk to urban areas.
Otherwise, I think the CDC and NIH have already conceded that the majority of the population will be exposed to the virus within the next 12 - 18 months, that roughly 8% or 9% of cases will require hospitalization, that 9% or 10% of those cases that require hospitalization will pass away, and that ~80% of fatalities will be borne by people with pre-existing risk factors such as advanced age and obesity/diabetes.
I expect that each industry will resume business, one by one, with semi-permanent measures in place to promote social distancing. There's going to be a huge emphasis on telecommuting and wearing masks in public, but it isn't clear what other precautions exist.