1/2 ‘lockdowns’ or forced mass quarantines like Italy, China aren’t right answer for U.S. They cause enormous social, health, economic costs. But we must adopt strong mitigation steps in areas of outbreak like Seattle that will significantly slow economic activity as consequence.
2/2 At the same time, we must provide direct economic assistance to cities, states, people burdened with hardship to compensate for large costs of strong mitigation steps and give cities more latitude to adopt such measures. The national interest depends on strong local actions.
School closures (preemptive or reactive), curtailing gatherings, closing places where people congregate indoors like theaters, implementing widespread telework requirements, limiting mass transit, small measures to reduce social interactions, can all mitigate scope of epidemic.
