There is a price to pay to open the economy

[BGBD]

That price can be paid either money or blood.

There are three options.

Open now.

The price here are the deaths of a couple million Americans over the next few months. Eventually the virus will runs its course and most people who are still alive will have immunity.

Open after a vaccine.

Here we keep high social distancing going bbn until a vaccine is brought to public. We devote every resource to getting there, but it's still atleast 8 months away. We enter a depression and tens of millions of Americans are unemployed long term.

Open slowly with the perfect mix of testing, tracing, distancing, and treatment.

In this option we are able to open because we are aggressively testing not just the sick but random samples of people as well. We use diagnostic and antibody tests, trace all contacts, keep our distance from others while in public and work at home as we can, and find effective treatments for those who do get sick.

Option 3 is clearly the best, but we aren't close on any of the criteria we need to meet. We cant even say one place is better off than another because we dont have any idea of true cases in most places. This is like walking a tightrope with our eyes closed and drunk.

Trump wants to open it up as soon as possible, but he hasn't done anything to earn it.

[msongs]

1. tetsting? what testing hmm nt

[AJT]

2. Has anyone else been thinking that this push to open up is so blue states and dems

can be blamed for the loss of jobs and income? This is such a double edged sword. If things stay as they are, then the curve will be flattened but people will be desperate and the dems will be blamed for the loss of income. If things open up then there would be another spike in covid-19 cases and deaths. I'm not sure that most people understand that it's best to leave things as they are. For most people the lesson won't be learned until work opens up and people start to get sick in larger numbers.

[BGBD]

3. Maybe

Trumps certainly trying to push this blame onto anyone he can.

However, it's not just going to be democratic governors that are going to be put in this spot. Several Republican governors have already joined Dem governors in creating interstate pacts about opening back up. Also, it's not like if R states do open up things are going to just be peaches and cream there. Let's say GA, FL, and TX all open up. Their economies aren't going to be great and there are going to be a lot of people dying there through the summer.

Like I said, there are only three options and the best one is essentially impossible for any state here to pull off right now. Of the other two, staying closed has a better outcome than opening. If you stay closed you are broke. If you open up you are broke and dead.