I believe the way forward has to set politics aside and listen to the experts.
Dr. Fauci is probably the one person we can trust and look toward to provide guidance as to how the USA in its entirety can move back to a NORMALIZED life. The people need to look to Dr. Fauci for the way forward.
I stress the word NORMALIZED because of the beginning return to life as it was before the virus will be cautious. It will take some time, months and not weeks, to eliminate COVID-19 from society. The "Unemployment PLUS 600" or businesses maintaining their payrolls is significant in the "CARES" legislation. There is every reason to "be sure" the path forward is safe.
A vaccine is important. There are two vaccines in trials today. That is astounding. The vaccines have moved quickly in the trials and it may be that a vaccine will be forthcoming sooner than the usual path. I am confident if the vaccine trials show real promise they will be fast-tracked into use in the country. But, until that occurs and it is a proven preventative Americans need to look to experts to find a path forward.
The reason the path forward is slower than many would like is because as soon as Americans begin to interact in a social realm they will contract the virus. That means there the stress within the hospital system will continue. There will still be danger to some of the most vulnerable in our country. So, the path forward has to include caution as well as enthusiasm for normalcy.
The most realistic aspect of our society moving back to normalcy is acknowledging children will not return to classes until the next school year beginning in late August or early September depending on the communities. That measure of time is probably the best point of view for the way forward. There is no hurry to make the USA "perform" to a previous standard. There is plenty of reason to MEASURE a return to normalcy by understanding the capacity of hospitals to care for the American people. That is why the "Stay at Home Order" was enacted in the first place. It is the hospitals' capacity to care for Americans that must be the focus of the path forward.
From the Financial Times:
April 3, 2020
...Beyond defeating the disease, (click here) the great test all countries will soon face is whether current feelings of common purpose will shape society after the crisis. As western leaders learnt in the Great Depression, and after the second world war, to demand collective sacrifice you must offer a social contract that benefits everyone....
The other "control" in social behavior has to expect less participation by those most vulnerable. The demographics of the deaths in the USA during this pandemic will be collected, studied and investigated to understand who is most vulnerable and how their behavior has to be modified on a continuous basis. Governing has to focus on the most vulnerable in the path forward as well. "The Americans with Disability Act" has to be modified to include vulnerable Americans to this virus. No one is to be a sacrificial lamb to COVID-19.
The best way forward is testing, but, the USA has not tasked industry to mass-produce tests. The American people are going to have to contain the damage to their lives themselves when the country opens up again by declaration of the experts.
Do not demonize the experts in political fodder. They are vital to our lives.
From "The Economist"
April 2, 2020Much has been made (click here) of President Donald Trump’s delayed response to the covid-19 pandemic. After initially dismissing concerns about the virus, Mr Trump promised, and then failed to deliver, millions of testing kits; in recent days he has taken to quarrelling with Democrats over deliveries of life-saving medical equipment. Yet the president is not an outlier. Apart from the federal government, many state and local governments have also dragged their feet....
28 March 2020
The Study (click here)
...An event history (click here) analysis of five social distancing policies across all fifty states reveals the most important predictors are political: all else equal, Republican governors and governors from states with more Trump supporters were slower to adopt social distancing policies. These delays are likely to produce significant, on-going harm to public health....
Yahoo money:
Coronavirus hits Democratic communities harder than Republican counterparts (click here)
March 20, 2020
By Kristin Myers
As the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country, (click here) large urban cities and academic institutions — which typically vote Democratic — have been among the hardest hit.
According to the CDC, every state in the country has reported cases of COVID-19, as does Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. New York, Washington, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, and Georgia have been some of the hardest states, with New York and Washington reporting well over 1,000 cases each.
To be certain, COVID-19 is hammering the entire U.S., regardless of geographic location or political affiliation. And the coming economic calamity is expected to leave no industry or region unscathed.
Yet as the virus brings activity on both coasts — which overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 — to a grinding halt, the demographics underscore how Democratic areas are being more heavily impacted than Republican ones.
And while low-wage workers of all stripes will likely bear the brunt of the economic hardships caused by the spread of the virus, it is black and Hispanic workers — and black women especially — that stand to be negatively impacted the most....
