Originally Posted by tmiller166 (Post 1742194)

Over 1700 people die of heart disease EVERY DAY on average. 150 die of pneumonia DAILY on average. Somehow we don’t seem to bother with those numbers in the media.

Originally Posted by Healthiest (Post 1742202)

Heart disease and pneumonia have been around for a VERY long time. This virus is just beginning. These numbers might not seem much to you now, but they will continue to grow year after year I fear.

Originally Posted by C. C. Rider (Post 1742237)

So then we will have wrecked our economy, destroyed the future of our children and grandchildren, and still have to deal with deaths from coronavirus??? Then what's the point of destroying our economy? What will it have accomplished other than adding more TRILLIONS to our national debt? I don't want to have to bow to President Xi in a few years.

Originally Posted by C. C. Rider (Post 1741699)

I know there are many threads on the coronavirus problem, but please allow me to start one to discuss just one specific aspect of this. I recently read in another thread here a comment to the effect that if we will just stick rigorously to our social distancing practices and practice good handwashing and the like, that we will be over this problem quicker.

While that may sound logical and correct, I don't believe that it is. In fact, if you will recall, the whole idea behind shutting things down and maintaining social distancing was to drag this process out for many months so as not to have too many cases at one time which would overwhelm our hospital resources. In other words, we wanted to "flatten" the curve, not have a short, sharp, high curve.

The quickest way to be rid of the CV problem would be to make no changes in our everyday habits, let people catch the virus, and then have about 99% of them recover and thereby build herd immunity rather quickly. The problem with this approach is that fatalities would likely be higher in the near term because the number of seriously ill patients would overwhelm our hospital system.

So, the powers that be chose the approach that would drag this situation out for a much longer period of time. While this approach would likely be easier to handle from a healthcare perspective, it will undoubtedly extend the time that we are dealing with the disease to a much, much longer period of time.

The drawback to this approach is that the disease doesn't really go away, it just spreads at a much slower rate and therefore takes a much longer period of time for our country to build a sizeable herd immunity. If we were able to go about our ordinary lives while slowing down the spread of the virus, that would be great, but unfortunately we can't.

So, I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm concerned that this "social distancing" and shutting down of all non-essential businesses may be with us a LOT longer than many people think. In fact, the better we are at self distancing, the longer the situation will likely last.

So it appears that we either stay the course for many months or resume life as usual in a few weeks and see a rapid return of many sick people. The only bright light that I can see in the "slow" approach that was chosen is that it may buy us some time in the hopes that a cure may be found quickly. I certainly hope so.

There is one other alternative, but it's not popular in many circles... and that is to isolate the most vulnerable (the aged, the immune compromised, etc) and let the rest of the country go back to work. Personally, that's the approach that I think should have been taken from the start, but many people think otherwise.

I hope everyone stays well. I just wanted to present the choices as I see them.

Thanks

Originally Posted by queasy27 (Post 1742283)

This is the most critical point to me against herd immunity arguments.

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby (Post 1741735)

Just make sure to write your obit before locking yourself in a school gym with all your pals who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of humanity.

I for one would prefer not to get sick in the first place, than to get sick and risk death while hoping to recover and become immune.

Originally Posted by Peggyfitz (Post 1742340)

Great decision!! It’s best not to get sick at all. Nurses & Doctors have never delt with this before. They get training on how to handle chemo patients, neuro, renal failure, diabetes. But there was no training for Covid Virus.
They can hook these patients to a respirator and hope for the best. While the rest of their body shuts down, they do their best to keep the patients alive.

Originally Posted by golfing eagles (Post 1742377)

Really??? I guess all the courses in virology and epidemiology that I sat through were hallucinations. I guess all the patients with serious viral infections that I managed was a dream----Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Varicella pneumonitis, Herpetic encephalitis, and even 1 case of Lassa fever.
No one had SPECIFIC experience with COVID-19, but I'm sure all the "untrained" doctors and nurses can muddle through this epidemic. BTW, they are doing a heck of a lot more than "hoping for the best"

Originally Posted by Jerry101 (Post 1742259)

I looked up ‘herd immunity’ in my new Thesaurus. It said ‘Russian Roulette’.