FOLLOW UP

Please read the comments to my previous blog "Priorities".
We will never control Covid-19 until ther is nation wide isolation and restricted travel. The President must use his wartime authority to order and enforce this. The new patient curve will neve flatten out if left to local authorities. 

The use of heat senceoring cameras is only for scanning and picking out cases or screening. At that it will  not be 100% effective in finding people to have temperature checks and screening but will help in getting "walking" carriers and slowing the infection curve.

PRIORITIES

  I am mad as hell. A pandemic is already raging in parts of this country and now every state has cases. If projections are right 300 million out of the 400 million Americans will be infected at least 20 million will need hospitalization and millions- not limited to the very susceptible elderly, those with chronic disease like diabetes or   kidney failure especially those on dialysis but also the young and well will die

  The Democrats and Republicans in our Congress are playing politics with each other rather than addressing loss of wages, paid sick leave the economic plight that Covid-19 is inflicting on the public. The Lobbyers are having a field day.

  Perhaps there would be retribution if this group got the virus, but I rather that common sense and the country’s welfare could prevail.

  At the same time POTUS is more interested in business as usual ignoring the that ultimately there will be in this nation of 400 million at least 320M infected, 20 % will be seriously ill, and there may be 320,000 deaths from Covid-19 if known statistics can be trusted. He wants to end all shutdowns, lockdowns by Easter -THREE weeks.

  Instead of ordering a national wide lockdown he leaves everything up to local and state authorities using his national emergency (wartime) powers to keep the market ant business going.

  This is the course Italy tried and now its death rate and cases is the largest in the world.

  South Korea when the earliest identifiable cases appeared took drastic measures including national lockdowns and flattened the curve so that its resources were not crushed. That should have been our reaction.

. Instead Trump boasts that he is sending 400 respirators to New York when thousand are really needed. Either he truly does not understand the dangers of this epidemic or in his bragging that everything is under control he is only thinking about reelection.

Republicans like the Lt Governor of Texas’s declaration on TV that “the group (elderly and sick) most at risk from Covid-19 should be willing to sacrifice their lives so that the country can gain steam”.

  I already did that in WWII so that Americans could have a life. which I too have enjoyed the past 75 years. Today I and none of the above feel that we are expendable!

  A welcomed exception is down the line Trump supporter, Sen. Lindsey Graham anti power base remarks that “there is no functioning economy unless we control the virus.” If only Trump, his administrators and Congress would understand.

  But testing only cases with symptoms is not the answer. Population mass testing to identify the asymptomatic carrier after national lockdown is the desired logical testing. That can be done with a modified Athena Camera, used by the Army, which can be modified  to screen over a thousands an hour for elevated temperatures and need to be tested or isolated.  That would be valuable in protecting health workers and other essential individuals.  
 Flattening the curve will allow us to control this virus and limit its toll on lives and the economy.

 I must apologize for not including among  those who do not feel that they are expendable all living WII veterans, as well as veterans of the Korea War and those without heel spurs who served in in Vietnam and not only had to contend with battle casualties but also with the belated effects of Agent Orange.

Essential individuals include not only health workers but among many others such as delivery, mail, grocery personal and all who must come in contact with people.

 

Wednesday am: I hope to post a long blog within the next 12 hours. Please check back.

ADDENDUM

 I should add to the earlier blog that since we must assume that 70 to 90% of the population will get infected that our aim should be in how to SLOW not strop the infection in order that our resources are not overwhelmed.

 Weeks before its first case, Australia for one has done this. Sufficient test kits are available so that a anyone on doctor’s recommendation can get unrestricted multiple free tests. Travel restrictions are minimal, and businesses can freely operate as long as people take reasonable precautions Canada has almost the same degree of readiness.

 Compare that to our situation.

 Today’s Wall Street Journal has a should read section on the virus and care.