'You go first': Conservative challenges Trump's rich pals whining about

[turbinetree]

workers not returning to work over virus fears

Published 4 hours ago on April 12, 2020
By Sarah K. Burris

Conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin issued a challenge to wealthy business owners and friends of President Donald Trump demanding that people get back to work: You first.

In her Sunday column, Rubin cited Ryan Williams, “the head of the previously well-respected and now crackpotish Claremont Institute,” calling on people to join the “resistance” against coronavirus and go back to life as usual.

“President Trump imagines he alone will decide when to reopen the country for business, although he has no constitutional, statutory or practical ability to do so,” Rubin explained. “He insists, contrary to the advice of public health officials, that we can get back to work regardless of whether we have the capacity to test millions of Americans.”

Friday, Vice President Mike Pence said that there should be “widespread testing” and “therapeutics” for most people who have the disease, the problem is that now free testing is no longer available and most people driving hours to testing sites are being informed they either can’t have the test because they don’t have symptoms or the test will cost $300 or more.

During an interview with CNN, CDC director Robert Redfield said that they need to understand the spread of the virus better, “strengthen public health infrastructure, prepare hospitals and other medical facilities, and foster a belief among Americans that it’s the right time to do this,” Bloomberg News cited.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/you-go-first-conservative-challenges-trumps-rich-pals-whining-about-workers-not-returning-to-work-over-virus-fears/

[WVreaper]

1. Nobody

should return to work until everybody returning to work at their workplace has been tested. NOBODY!

[Windy City Charlie]

2. It would be like the wars

It would be like the wars. Republicans beat the drum of war, talk about how much it's needed. Problem is, they want someone else to go and do their fighting for them.

[pat_k]

3. "the Apollo program of our times."

Seattle Times
When will this end, and what comes next?

Keeping the virus under control in the long term will require an ambitious strategy that one Seattle scientist calls “the Apollo program of our times.”

The basic approach is no different than for any other epidemic: Identify those who become infected, as well as those who have been exposed, and isolate them. But that would mean a massive scale-up of testing and contact tracing, at a time when even nursing homes still can’t get enough test kits and public health agencies are swamped.

Trevor Bedford, the Fred Hutch computational biologist who made the moonshot analogy, says what’s needed is new technology, including simple home tests and the use of cellphone location data to alert people who may have been exposed. Some epidemiologists say it could even be necessary to impose intermittent lockdowns through the end of the year, to keep hospitals from being flooded with patients.

If the strategies work, they will buy time for the development of lifesaving treatments and a vaccine.

“People really do need to understand the sad truth here, related to the fact that we’re not going to be able to stop this outbreak,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County. “We’re trying to manage it, but people will continue to get sick. People will continue to get critically ill. People will continue to die.”

We ARE capable of getting this done -- of an "Apollo program of our times." We are capable of containing this and preventing a massive rebound, while preserving the economy. Keep the lockdown in place until numbers are down and don't lift it until we are capable of EFFECTIVE targeted quarantine.

Trump won't do it, but a coalition of governors could. And to get private industry on the stick, they should pledge not to "reopen" until they have the capability to carry out the widespread testing -- including a home test and ability to process VERY large numbers of them -- necessary, along with task forces to carry about aggressive tracing of contacts, notification, and quarantine of every case identified.

If big business wants to get back into business, they better pony up bucks. It would be the best investment they ever made.