Why flattening the curve is overrated
pensford.com
pensford.com
Look at how our country's national security policies were forever changed after 3,000 deaths on September 11th. This disease has the ability to take away two magnitudes more people -- hundreds of thousands. We shouldn't be surprised if profound policy changes emerge as a response to pandemic.
They can, and in fact it's necessary to do so in order to make reasonable decisions. That's why we don't shut down the world during every flu season.
Look at how our country's national security policies were forever changed after 3,000 deaths on September 11th.
And a lot of those policies have turned out to be questionable at best.
This disease has the ability to take away two magnitudes more people -- hundreds of thousands.
Correct. We should be quarantining now not because "it will save lives", but because the expected value of the lives it will save outweighs the costs.
If for example, we could no longer produce food due to quarantining (not the case, as essential industries are still operating-- but imagine for some reason, we did shut down food production), and 100 million would die vs 200,000-- clearly the better option would be to not quarantine.
So, I don't know if this a debate of semantics, but "economic losses" that would turn into actual loss of human life (e.g., due to starvation) are being accounted for.