The absolute best approach to this respiratory illness would have been to move patients outdoors, where vapor clouds can be dissipated by a light breeze, and where sunlight damages viruses. Failing that, ensure cross-ventilation indoors. We did the opposite.
The age-cohort relationship between risk and outcome was evident fairly quickly. Of all comorbidities that increased risk of serious disease, obesity was the most common and the most deadly. So, devote resources to the old and the fat and ignore everyone else pending more information. Instead, we treated everyone as having the same risk profile.
Our best response would have been to ignore the disease. The temptation to DO SOMETHING is near-irresistible. Still, if we had just ignored the disease, we'd have saved the global economy; the disruption killed more than the disease.
Yes. And in a rank twist of irony, just today the CDC revised its guidelines to basically the same exact ones that they first issued at the start of the pandemic, which are no different than the recommendations for flu season. Back to square one, where we should've remained the entire time. Protect the vulnerable, maintain normality as best as possible, exercise bare minimum courage in the face of uncertainty.
The absolute best approach to this respiratory illness would have been to move patients outdoors, where vapor clouds can be dissipated by a light breeze, and where sunlight damages viruses. Failing that, ensure cross-ventilation indoors. We did the opposite.
The age-cohort relationship between risk and outcome was evident fairly quickly. Of all comorbidities that increased risk of serious disease, obesity was the most common and the most deadly. So, devote resources to the old and the fat and ignore everyone else pending more information. Instead, we treated everyone as having the same risk profile.
Our best response would have been to ignore the disease. The temptation to DO SOMETHING is near-irresistible. Still, if we had just ignored the disease, we'd have saved the global economy; the disruption killed more than the disease.
Yes. And in a rank twist of irony, just today the CDC revised its guidelines to basically the same exact ones that they first issued at the start of the pandemic, which are no different than the recommendations for flu season. Back to square one, where we should've remained the entire time. Protect the vulnerable, maintain normality as best as possible, exercise bare minimum courage in the face of uncertainty.