Originally Posted by
Phoba Rama
I think we are at the point where reopening with smart social distancing is the move. Keep in mind, I acknowledge that I am not an expert. That being said, I think at this point the argument is more philosophical than scientific. I don't think there's any question that re-opening will lead to a spike in infections. At this point, however, the curve has been flattened. We understand much more about the virus now though, and social distancing does work to a significant extent (though it will never be perfect). I still believe the transmission is more from touching something with the virus on it, then touching your face than anything else. Sure, if someone coughs on you, that's bad. How often does that really happen though. Most people who got COVID were never coughed on. I'm fine with all the mask wearing, though I don't think this is the answer.
Back to the philosophical discussion. We talk a lot about the elderly and how we are protecting them. At what point, however, is asking a person to live out the rest of their life in isolation a worse outcome than death? I know if it were me, I would rather take the risk of getting COVID (even if it kills me) than live out the rest of my days in isolation from society. For the rest of society, we are soon going to reach a tipping point where businesses will be forced to close shop for good due to financial constraints. The owners of those businesses poured their lives into that. All in the name of protecting people who in many cases would rather live their lives with increased risk than be "protected" in isolation. Aside from the owners, the jobs are also going away. The big question here is at what point will the effects of poverty (crime, inability to afford life saving medications, homelessness, other disease, depression, suicide, and much, much more) worse than whatever will happen if we re-open society with social distancing precautions?
I don't know the answer and I'm sure there is some algorithm that the government is using to weigh all of those things (or maybe there isn't, in which case what are we doing here?). Most of these algorithms have proven false anyway, because unfortunately humans cannot predict the future with any real accuracy. Man plans, God laughs. Isn't that the truth.
My personal opinion is that it's time to start re-opening with precautions. I don't think we should wait another day. I am just one man with an opinion though. I have seen the death and devastation of this virus. It got pretty bad for a while there. I strongly believe all of the shutdowns were necessary and important. We were down to 5 ventilators at my hospital at one point (we had 100). If the shutdowns did not happen, I would have been deciding who lives and dies. I thank God every day that I was never put in that position. Things are much, much better now. PPE is much more available. Health care workers are relatively safe now.
I also thank God I am not in a position where I decide when the shutdown ends. No matter what these leaders decide, they will be wrong to someone. I don't think they are bad people for making those decisions, and still truly believe everyone is doing their best and trying to do what's best for their people.
While there are no decisions that make the leaders bad people, there are best and worst decisions. I believe the best decision is to get back to work and get society running again. This includes sports. My philosophy is let's not live our lives not to die, let's live our lives to live, and allow ourselves to enjoy living again. The worse part of the storm is over. Now it's a matter of moving on as a society and learning to deal with this new normal. Regardless of what is decided, I pray that everyone makes it through safely, and that we all stay healthy and go back to normal.
