Stopping the Trump Epidemic

This is an informative article on what needs to be done from ideal pie-in-the-sky to practical in America.

There is a chance to stop the coronavirus. This contagion has a weakness.

...the coronavirus more often infects clusters of family members, friends and work colleagues...
...
In China, 75 to 80 percent of all transmission occurred in family clusters.

That pattern has already repeated itself here. Seven members of a large family in New Jersey were infected; four have already died. After a lawyer in New Rochelle, N.Y., fell ill, his wife, son and daughter all tested positive.

...No one is certain why the virus travels in this way, but experts see an opening nonetheless. “You can contain clusters,” Dr. [David L.] Heymann said.

But doing so takes...near-total cooperation from the populace.

In the [last] week...remarkable changes have come over American life. State governments are telling residents they must stay home. Nonessential businesses are being shuttered.

The streets are quieter than they have been in generations, and even friends keep a wary distance. What seemed unthinkable just a week ago is rapidly becoming the new normal.

...the lesson [from China] is that relatively unaffected regions of the United States will be needed to help rescue overwhelmed cities like New York and Seattle. Keeping these areas at least somewhat free of the coronavirus means enacting strict measures, and quickly.

Stop transmission within cities

Within cities, there are dangerous hot spots: One restaurant, one gym, one hospital...

Each day’s delay in stopping human contact, experts said, creates more hot spots...

To stop the explosion, municipal activity must be curtailed.
...
Instead of a policy that advises the infected to remain at home, as the Centers for Disease and Prevention now does, experts said cities should establish facilities where the mildly and moderately ill can recuperate under the care and observation of nurses.

Wuhan created many such centers, called “temporary hospitals,” each a cross between a dormitory and a first-aid clinic...

American cities now have many spaces that could serve as isolation wards. Already New York is considering turning the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center into a temporary hospital, along with the Westchester Convention Center and two university campuses.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said on Saturday that state officials were also considering opening isolation wards.

[No, I'm not down with that. You won't get this populace's cooperation in that.]

Find the fevers

In most cities in affected Asian countries, it is commonplace before entering any bus, train or subway station, office building, theater or even a restaurant to get a temperature check...

[Wow, that's great! I'd be down with that.]

In China, having a fever means a mandatory trip to a fever clinic to check for coronavirus.

[Then no.]

American experts have divided opinions about masks...There is very little data showing that flat surgical masks protect healthy individuals from disease.

[See! That's what I read before. But then why the hell do doctors--surgeons!--and nurses wear them?]

Also, experts emphasized, Americans should be taught to take seriously admonitions to stop shaking hands and hugging. The “W.H.O. elbow bump” may look funny, but it’s a legitimate technique for preventing infection.

[Arright fine. How about a butt bump?]


Okay enough. Produce more ventilators. Enough. I'll do all but go into a dorm and the mandatory temperature checks.

Imag