Quote:
Originally Posted by tadd
There are going to be folks questioning the choices made for years. Hell the only way to know if the choice was right is to do it over and make a different one.
One thing I think is obvious is that in the future, if testing is online very early, we can maybe do away with the shutdown.
From a personal standpoint, if I had been in the hot seat having to make the call, I would have been a Gov Hogan and not a Cuomo. I would not have been telling people to go to
The movies. Or having Mardi Gras.
Cat was WAY out of the bag at that point.
So what would have been your choice if in the hot seat? Remember all you got to go on is China was locking down millions and Europe was beginning to see an uptick. No hindsight.
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Note the bold.
How quickly people forget. Without pointing any fingers, there was no testing, widespread or otherwise, when the outbreak first hit the U.S. The CDC was developing a test that proved to be faulty, and the FDA forbade tests developed by the private sector and universities from being administered. As of today, there still is inadequate testing, per capita, to effectively locate, isolate, contact trace, and contain the virus.
Given the lack of testing, the only "weapon" was social distancing/lock downs, or let the virus run rampant. Once the decision was made to not let the disease run its course unchecked, the blunt instrument of social distancing/lock downs was employed. Raw numbers drove that choice. Raw numbers of sick and dying patients from other countries. Raw numbers of how many hospital beds, per capita, the U.S. had available. Real time knowledge of what happens when a country's health care system is overwhelmed. Real time virus outbreaks in a Washington State nursing home and the spread to staff. Real time evidence of community spread rather than from the outside.
One word could have prevented the lock downs then, and in the future.
TESTING.