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.
In the early days of the Great Panic-demic of 2020, my dad volunteered to go up to NYC (he's a Nurse Practitioner). I remember I called him and asked how it was: "Son, this shit is a joke."
A month later, the same people who told us that, for God's sake, you must wear a mask and stay in isolation were also claiming that racism is a public health emergency... so large crowds in the street were fine (they were "mostly peaceful" anyways).
I think, however, that we really dodged a bullet. Imagine what the governmental reaction would have been if a Democratic administration had been in power when Covid-19 hit. It's scary to think about.
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.
In the early days of the Great Panic-demic of 2020, my dad volunteered to go up to NYC (he's a Nurse Practitioner). I remember I called him and asked how it was: "Son, this shit is a joke."
A month later, the same people who told us that, for God's sake, you must wear a mask and stay in isolation were also claiming that racism is a public health emergency... so large crowds in the street were fine (they were "mostly peaceful" anyways).
I think, however, that we really dodged a bullet. Imagine what the governmental reaction would have been if a Democratic administration had been in power when Covid-19 hit. It's scary to think about.