Thread by @saradannerdukic

Some things to ponder as bots, trolls, and other propaganda weapons are set to squeeze us into the Jonestown Kool-aid false choice of Let Them Die vs. Save the Economy. (both of these choices involve Trump doing nothing, BTW)

First, let’s look at what tools we have in our arsenal to fight this, per experts.

Social Distancing (saying at home) and flattening the curve. This is not forever. This is a temporary measure to avoid catastrophe.
nytimes.com/2020/03/11/sci…

Testing, testing, testing.

“To spare hospitals and clinics from being overwhelmed, officials opened 600 testing centers designed to screen as many people as possible, as quickly as possible — and keep health workers safe by minimizing contact.”
nytimes.com/2020/03/23/wor…

“Tests would make a measurable difference. We should be doing a stochastic process random probability sample of the country to find out where the hell the virus really is. Because we don't know...(cont'd)

Maybe Mississippi is reporting no cases because it's not looking. How would they know? Zimbabwe reports zero cases because they don't have testing capability, not because they don't have the virus...(cont'd)

We need something that looks like a home pregnancy test, that you can do at home.”
wired.com/story/coronavi…

Antibodies are another tool. This can serve two purposes: therapy, and getting people safely back to work.

Therapies:

https://twitter.com/DrDenaGrayson/status/1242402066502422529?s=20

Therapies:
nbcnews.com/health/health-…

Therapies:
nbcnews.com/health/health-…

More from the Wired interview with Larry Brilliant, on how testing for antibodies will help open parts of society back up:

“The world is not going to begin to look normal until three things have happened. (cont'd)

One, we figure out whether the distribution of this virus looks like an iceberg, which is one-seventh above the water, or a pyramid, where we see everything. (cont'd)

If we're only seeing right now one-seventh of the actual disease because we're not testing enough, and we're just blind to it, then we're in a world of hurt. (cont'd)

Two, we have a treatment that works, a vaccine or antiviral. (cont'd)

And three, maybe most important, we begin to see large numbers of people—in particular nurses, home health care providers, doctors, policemen, firemen, and teachers who have had the disease—are immune, and we have tested them to know that they are not infectious any longer.

(cont'd) And we have a system that identifies them, either a concert wristband or a card with their photograph and some kind of a stamp on it. Then we can be comfortable sending our children back to school, because we know the teacher is not infectious.”

(here’s the link again for the quote above)
wired.com/story/coronavi…

BTW, labs are already working on the antibody test:
thedailybeast.com/can-coronaviru…

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

Another tool: enlisting the public’s help.
“Television broadcasts, subway station announcements and smartphone alerts provide endless reminders to wear face masks, pointers on social distancing and the day’s transmission data. (cont'd)

The messaging instills a near-wartime sense of common purpose. Polls show majority approval for the government’s efforts, with confidence high, panic low and scant hoarding.”
nytimes.com/2020/03/23/wor…

Now let’s talk about economic impacts of going full Jim Jones, doing nothing, and letting our friends, neighbors, nannas, and loved ones die. (this is separate from the moral + emotional impact, which will be soul obliterating and American dream-ending)

If most countries put the US on the “no-f*cking-way” list for travel due to going the false choice do-nothing route, it will have a negative impact.
cnn.com/world/live-new…

A really negative impact. As in over a trillion dollars and millions of jobs.
selectusa.gov/travel-tourism…

This doesn’t even take into account all the businesses that will be crippled due to employees not being able to travel and do business.

People over 50 make up a not insignificant part of the economy. Americans aged 50 and over generated $8 trillion in economic activity in 2015.
bbc.com/worklife/artic…

A large percentage of people who are retirement age are working - it’s one of the fastest-growing segments of the workforce.
aarp.org/work/working-a…

Median age of farmers is 58. It will have a negative impact if we suddenly lose a large number of farmers - an already dwindling profession.
morningagclips.com/average-age-of…

Also on the list of our older MUCH LOVED ones who still are in the workforce: teachers, doctors, dentists. Losing a large number of these people will be devastating.
time.com/4726657/retire…

(additional sourcing)
hasc.org/sites/main/fil…

I wonder what the median age is of a cruise ship passenger.
cruise1st.co.uk/blog/cruise-ho…

Or a casino patron.
statista.com/statistics/188…

Let’s examine another knock-on effect of allowing infections to rage unchecked.

If our healthcare system is overwhelmed for months on end with coronavirus patients, do you think that will negatively impact people’s ability to get routine healthcare?

What about babies being born? Heart attacks? Car accidents? Cancer treatments? How will these things be addressed if we no longer have personnel or equipment?

nytimes.com/2020/02/25/bus…

Oh, so you’re not old, not pregnant, who cares? Not so fast.

Right now, more than half of the people who are hospitalized in New York are young.
thedailybeast.com/half-of-all-co…

What kind of impact do you think it will have on the economy for huge chunks of the workforce to be hospitalized, sick at home, or struggling to take care of children while a partner is hospitalized or too sick to do anything?
forbes.com/sites/brucejap…

As Dr. Acton has said repeatedly during her and Governor DeWine’s press conferences, we will have to be creative. We will have to think of solutions and do things we haven’t done before. To me, this begs the question: what kind of AMERICANS do we want to be?