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Brought over from past thread--posted by 10 of Rods:
I wanted to bring this over because there are so many important points to unpack here. Thank You for these thoughts.
One part in particular I want to highlight:
"As essential workers die and/or are disabled and/or quit, are we saying that ALL of us would just stay home? What then? Where would we get our food?
We are throwing away tons of food right now. Which is fine, for a short term. But if we have no fresh fruit and vegetables by next year, that increases the vaso-risk for vulnerable people. We need healthy food and lifestyles (this is not an opinion, it's a fact)"
This ^^^ is what I have been trying to convey, to people who are outraged by the imminent plans to try and reopen some of the nation.
Sure, it would be comforting to think we could all just hibernate until 2021, and then discuss the next steps....but we CANNOT do so.
we cannot expect that the overworked and overwhelmed 'essential' workers that are now treating the patients, growing the food, working in the warehouses and transporting and stocking the shelves, are going to be able to continue, while 70% of the rest of us sit in our cozy homes and watch Netflix. It cannot happen that way.
Sooner or later , but more like sooner, we need to address these problems. People like to say 'forget the economy, lives are more important.' Well, yes, lives are of utmost importance.
But our very lives depend upon restarting the nation because we need to keep food supply chains working. We need to keep our medicine supplies stocked. My important meds are on 'back order' right now and in short supply. I am sure millions of people are in the same boat.
My mother is on quarantine, which is protecting her from CV. But she has missed several very important medical appointments with her heart specialist. Those are vital appointments and she is living all alone in quarantine, and I worry that she will take a turn for the worse, and no one will know. She may end up dying from the preventative cure.
We know 6 people who are about to lose their businesses. These are hardworking people who have built up their businesses with sweat equity and it is devastating for them.
3 of them are clinging to the hope that we will reopen very very soon and they will be able claw themselves up from the basement.
This is not a popular opinion here....
....but I am feeling inspired right now. I am feeling hopeful and optimistic.
I KNOW MORE PEOPLE WILL DIE. It is inevitable. Even if we all stay locked down, at some point, people will have to come out and we will begin passing it on again.
Our only hope is finding ways to reopen and take as many precautions as we can to try and limit the contagions.
We have no choice. We cannot have 100% of the population stay away from this. Essential people are dying already and now our economy is crumbling and people are not going to be able to survive. Unemployment and homelessness? That will spread this disease rapidly.
How does a homeless person stay home? And how do we protect all the workers who have to go into those populations to provide services?
This is not a question where the answer is anything other than "people are going to get CV-19 in future." We do not have herd immunity. If there's never a vaccine...or one isn't invented within 18-24 months, we're going to see deaths continue to go along at the rates they're nearing right now.
What is your answer? To keep everything shut down for 2 years? It won't work. People aren't obeying it right now, there's not enough law enforcement in the US to keep everyone locked up at home for 2 years.
Or even 6 months. People are creeping back out as I type.
You can personally quarantine for as long as you like. But with death rates of virtually ZERO in the under-20 population, do they really have to give up their education? I can tell you this: without nurses and doctors in the pipeline, and with people continuing to get CV19 because there will still be nursing homes and hospitals, we are screwed.
Death rates for other causes are going to rise if doctors can't do surgeries or see patients for ongoing care for other issues or provide preventive care. We must reopen some hospitals for non-CV19 patients.
But the death rate is not going to go to zero. We just need to figure out how to keep it low. For as long as it is low, vulnerable people need to self-isolate. A vaccination will be the only hope for those of us taking that option.
This is not a question where your opinion or my opinion has any bearing. It is an empirical question of what is going to happen. As essential workers die and/or are disabled and/or quit, are we saying that ALL of us would just stay home? What then? Where would we get our food?
We are throwing away tons of food right now. Which is fine, for a short term. But if we have no fresh fruit and vegetables by next year, that increases the vaso-risk for vulnerable people. We need healthy food and lifestyles (this is not an opinion, it's a fact).
I wanted to bring this over because there are so many important points to unpack here. Thank You for these thoughts.
One part in particular I want to highlight:
"As essential workers die and/or are disabled and/or quit, are we saying that ALL of us would just stay home? What then? Where would we get our food?
We are throwing away tons of food right now. Which is fine, for a short term. But if we have no fresh fruit and vegetables by next year, that increases the vaso-risk for vulnerable people. We need healthy food and lifestyles (this is not an opinion, it's a fact)"
This ^^^ is what I have been trying to convey, to people who are outraged by the imminent plans to try and reopen some of the nation.
Sure, it would be comforting to think we could all just hibernate until 2021, and then discuss the next steps....but we CANNOT do so.
we cannot expect that the overworked and overwhelmed 'essential' workers that are now treating the patients, growing the food, working in the warehouses and transporting and stocking the shelves, are going to be able to continue, while 70% of the rest of us sit in our cozy homes and watch Netflix. It cannot happen that way.
Sooner or later , but more like sooner, we need to address these problems. People like to say 'forget the economy, lives are more important.' Well, yes, lives are of utmost importance.
But our very lives depend upon restarting the nation because we need to keep food supply chains working. We need to keep our medicine supplies stocked. My important meds are on 'back order' right now and in short supply. I am sure millions of people are in the same boat.
My mother is on quarantine, which is protecting her from CV. But she has missed several very important medical appointments with her heart specialist. Those are vital appointments and she is living all alone in quarantine, and I worry that she will take a turn for the worse, and no one will know. She may end up dying from the preventative cure.

We know 6 people who are about to lose their businesses. These are hardworking people who have built up their businesses with sweat equity and it is devastating for them.
3 of them are clinging to the hope that we will reopen very very soon and they will be able claw themselves up from the basement.
This is not a popular opinion here....

I KNOW MORE PEOPLE WILL DIE. It is inevitable. Even if we all stay locked down, at some point, people will have to come out and we will begin passing it on again.
Our only hope is finding ways to reopen and take as many precautions as we can to try and limit the contagions.