I imagine this is very regional. People here in Utah seem to have largely gone back to life as normal. Anecdotally, I've seen mask usage go way down in the last couple weeks. Meanwhile, our cases have started sharply increasing.
I've seen this too. A coffee shop I frequent literally went from masks one day to no masks the next in the last week. At the same time, cases are consistently going up in my county (Orange county CA)
What we ended up with was the illusion of a "win" when really we're just waiting to lose a second time and in a more dire way. I'm not sure the country will stomach another shutdown with a second wave, so I'm thinking that we'll just let the virus burn through and incur the high human cost it comes with.
Now I can’t even begin to predict what that snap back will look like. A permanent growth of remote work seems plausible, but I’m sure there will be unexpected secondary and tertiary outcomes.
On one hand, Sweden’s economy is no better off than the rest of Europe. On the other hand, US deaths are on an exponential decline, similar to Europe, albeit slower.
I think the meaningful difference is that European countries had more more extensive and effective programs to keep workers on payroll. If you want to point a finger at a US fuckup, look at chronic job insecurity and pushing unemployment insurance over employee retention.
For example, 40-50 percent of workers in France, New Zealand and Switzerland received payroll retention benefits.
People without health care or sick leave will still eventually get coronavirus. The reason for lockdown is to make sure that hospitals are not overrun. It doesn't solve America's other problems.
The idea that you can get the r value low enough that it dies out completely doesn't work because it would need to be consistent across states and countries. There will always be pockets of coronavirus unless you lockdown to the point of no economic return.
We can stop it now--masks are required in public unless you have a doctor-diagnosed breathing disorder. Put some real teeth in the laws. That will drive R0 to below 1 and the virus will go away.
Asking because while the theory may be sound, translation isn’t a given. And pursuing a policy without regard to feasibility may be counterproductive.
Given the current state of policing in America, the idea of leaning on the police to enforce mask rules is personally unpalatable.
What we really need is a social change on this issue, but that requires leadership from the top that we’re not getting.
Would the number of lives saved from improved treatment be better than the economic cost? You can call me heartless but in the end economic cost also equals lives lost.
The US is in the midst of implementing the "hands-off" model in the same fashion, discordant, with the respective parties playing the expected sides; battlegrounds drawn at state and county lines.
I don't see how that can be counted as an objective success.
Some places are full sit down at the bar is acceptable (no masks) vs. getting kicked out of a take-out joint for not wearing a mask (Los Angles).