personally, I don't perceive closing schools and the like as a middle road when doing so forces parents to stay at home, not to mention that kids weren't the ones at risk to begin with. If we want the elderly and similar to stay at home, we need to make ventures so that such a thing is possible. Afterall, they need food and so on same as the rest of us, and some require daily care. I'm not saying it would be easy, but setting up the necessary routine and infrastructure to allow them to isolate for a time, is to me, better than screwing over those who aren't at risk. Some will no doubt choose to go on with their lives, and that is their choice. The education at schools and universities is every bit as important for the future as the health care system is. As is the economy, which suffers from forcing the temporary closure of stores, and the layoffs that naturally follows.
A lock down might save more lives in the direct sense, but the overall effects are, I think, worse. Quality of life drops, as you remove so much of what makes life worth living in the first place. For any extended period of time, that's going to be a hard sell to the people on the whole. Or maybe people are more willing to give up their freedom's than I thought. Afterall, I couldn't image that the French, for example, would just sit back and take it when their government enforced full on lockdown. But would they take it for a full month? How about Three, or even more?
Michigan is about as middle ground as it gets. Citizens are not on lock down, we can still go to the store, or pick up food from a restaurant. Only just last night after another doubling of cases in a days time did the Gov put out that all salons are to be closed as well. Shes doing the best to balance public safety with economic concerns. In fact, I'd say most US states were middle ground until they weren't. Until the numbers started getting to big to ignore.
In Michigan universities and colleges are moving to online courses. Easy enough for them since nearly all of them already have some sort of online blackboard that they use. Not all, but a lot of middle schools and high schools do as well. And I suspect many of them well be launching online blackboard systems if the shutdown is extended. The problem with leaving schools open isnt necessarily to do getting children sick, it's the teachers. A good deal of teachers are older.
As for daycares, they are still open. Older middle schoolers and high school aged kids dont need it, and the younger children should already be set as parent need someone to watch their kids over summer anyway. We're offered up or spot at our daycare since we are currently working from home. However, a good number of others are as well, so our daycare is fairly empty.
Michigan, I would say is a pretty good middle ground. And even if not. And you think they are more on the "lockdown" side. What does it say that our numbers, both infection and death rates, are doubling almost every day? My mother worked with the first person who died from this in Oakland county. The time frame from likely contration of Covid-19 to death was less than a month. He went on a week vacation, got back, and within that week started showing symptoms. They ordered him to go home, he was tested and a week after that he died. 50 years old, only underlying health issue was being a bit overweight, like most 50 year old americans.
At a 2% mortality rate, if we let this burn through the population as it seems some of you are suggesting, we are talking about hundreds of millions of deaths. And that's without consideration for mutations that may make it that much more deadly for any age group, and without consideration for the stress on medical systems.
I think Thunderfoot does a good job presenting the numbers and possible outcomes.
He also brings up another good point, one I suspect we might see play out in China if correct. That being spiked in case for countries that have seen a down turn in numbers and have lessened quarantine restrictions. Without a vaccine or cure, I suspect it's just going to yoyo
