Thanks Matt, this documents what I've been thinking about "herd immunity" very well. If no other option existed, or for non-fatal diseases, it might have merit- otherwise too many die. I did look into how S.Korea is handling this and their system does seem to be working great, but I can't see it working as well here in the US. We're too mobile and people reject intrusions into our privacy at almost any cost. And then there are the sheer numbers and distances we've got here.
If a careless infected person were on an RV tour of the US stopping at every point of interest, before even the most powerful computers could find them by backwards-tracing contacts and locations they would have covered thousands of miles and infected thousands of people. It needn't be a tourist; we've got thousands of salesmen and technicians going all over the place constantly. Only a "stay in your house" type response such as Italy is doing can get the necessary effect here and quite frankly that would be unenforceable unless the Police and Military are allowed to "shoot on sight" anyone they encounter outside. Anything even close to that here will likely result in more chaos than is seen in war zones. American people aren't as civic-minded as most of the world is- far too many truly don't care about each other and see only themselves as having any value. It's a truth which pains me
But so far nothing big has happened with the disease or with Government controls so for me it is still "wait and see"
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Locally the Cities near me are postponing and cancelling anything related to public gatherings which are normally done such as meetings and sponsored events. Many private organizations are doing the same. Even Churches are cancelling their services and going online for their people. Americans are now taking this thing seriously and beginning to make the needed decisions to minimize the chances for spreading, so hopefully there won't be a need for government-led lockdowns, but I do expect that there will be quarantine areas set up to hold and treat the infected people should the numbers got so big that hospitals can't handle things. And now our media is directly confronting Trump over his very obvious lie about his dismantling our Pandemic response teams which he claims that someone else did and that he knew nothing about. It's becoming clear to my Nation what has been clear to me for quite some time- we've got a fool or idiot (or both!) steering our Copuntry's path, and now we're all about to pay the price for allowing zealots like him and his counterparts hold power. I hope that we both survive this mess ell and remember to do something about the evil politicians who allowed this to happen to us. Maybe we should return to what was done back in the mid-1700's: at the very least a public tarring-and-feathering of our national-level politicians is in order, for they all knew what was happening and didn't do what they should have to save us
If the rest of the world sees Americans as idiots I really can't blame them for their perception now.
For the time being we all need to overlook our differences and work together for the good of all of us. This is a world-wide problem and only the world working together can make a difference for any of us. None of us is immune and this isn't going to be the last time something like this happens. I live in hope that we all come through this without great loss, especially of those who we love and care about. And I hope we learn from it that what may seem to be little things can quickly grow into hugely important ones which will affect us all.
Stay safe my friends,
Phil
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