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Comment by softwaredoug | Hacker News Reader

Serious question: don’t we pass a threshold where it’s not practical to cancel travel or events because of covid-19? It’s just going to spread anyway?

For example, once, say, Olympics roll around, is there really any value in canceling them if it’s going to be everywhere anyway?

Is containment even possible and, if not, is the disruption to the economy worth it?

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It’s about smoothing the curve so the healthcare system can absorb the influx of patients. If the healthcare system is overwhelmed then it’s a problem.

Here’s a link to a great article.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/preparing-...

This is exactly what's happening in Italy. The majority of people are asymptomatic or only have mild symptoms, but smaller hospitals are nearing full capacity and thus are redirecting patients to other hospitals. ICU beds cannot all be reserved to covid patients, there are regular patients as well. All the restrictive measures put in place should help contain the spread and avoid overwhelming the healthcare system.

You would still want to slow the spread as much as possible to ease the load on hospitals and make sure you can take care of as many of the serious cases as you can.

It at least can slow the spread, cushioning the impact on hospital resources.

Also, the virus is more likely to mutate the more hosts it infects.

> Is containment even possible and, if not, is the disruption to the economy worth it?

Economy over lives probably isn’t going to fly..

Yeah but this is the United States where we've rolled up and stowed away all the social safety nets should one lose their job which is going to start happening soon if this economic disruption continues. In short, bad economy equates to lost lives. So it really isn't a question of economy over lives.

Right but it’s not a blatant disregard.

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