“Has NEVER HAPPENED in the history of the country and shouldn’t have happened now.” You are only partially right…it has never happened to this country AND the world because Covid-19 has never happened to this world.
All of your stats, models, predictions, and subsequent actions to minimize, control, and then deal with the H1N1, swine/bird flu, normal influenza, SARS, MERS, and every other pandemic… those who got these diseases exhibited symptoms making it relatively easy to identify the infected allowing for a targeted approach in dealing with it. This made it much easier to isolate, and then contain. No need to shut down the planet. I am sorry you got sick and had to deal with it first hand. I am sure you did not want to do something to infect others either. I appreciate that.
For seven months, people like those today, worked hard for some solutions. Governments, medical leadership, pharma largely knew how many were infected and where they were located. I remember those models and predictions were eventually downsized as more real time info became available. In every one of those events, quick identification followed with immediate isolation/quarantined. No need to shut down. No hospitals overflowing with people who can’t breath requiring immediate ICU. People who had it cooperated and there was little mystery on who had what and when. We should be thankful that those outbreaks were LESS than the best understood predictions.
42% of the people who have Covid-19 today don’t have symptoms, don’t know they have it…but they are three times as contagious than those infected during any of the previous pandemics. Plus, even today, we have very little idea who actually is infected. At this point, of those identified with Covid-19, only 25% have recovered and of those who have had an outcome…meaning you survived or died…79% recovered and 21% are dead. Not good percentages to hold an event with 600,000+ attending, with the largest percentage of those in attendance in the 50+ year old range. I would say that is a Covid-19 target rich environment based on current facts not computer models.
But hey, we are “flattening the curve” making us willing to scoff at an additional 60,000+ deaths as an acceptable price to pay to do what we want when we want to. All in addition to the 40-60K that normally die of flu complications, the 45K deaths from auto accidents, and the 1.5 million who die each year from properly prescribed drugs. Seems like we are getting pretty jaded by these numbers making losing 2 -3 million plus American people a year from our top 10 diseases a normal occurrence but well within our comfort zone.
I am 67 years old, lost my aviation job due to Covid-19, own, maintain, and fly my own airplane ( much less now because of finances), and have attended EAA conventions since Rockford only missing a few years while being a troubleshooter ( Green shirt) on the flight deck during flight ops, and AMS ( aircraft mechanic) during my nine years in the US Navy. I have been a spectator and exhibitor at SNF, AOPA events, Oshkosh, AEA, NBAA, Deland, etc. I am an A&P as well. Until Covid-19 shut down the US economy I was working full-time and planned to for at least another five years. You have made a lot of assumptions about me, my lifestyle, my finances, and why I exhibit what you call my “protectionist” world-view.
I want Oshkosh to happen, just like I wanted to stay employed in aviation. My job had me attending virtually every major aviation event in the US during 2020. I looked forward to these events just like thousands of other aviation devotees. But Covid-19 has stopped all of this, shut down the world for a time because no one knows whose got the disease, very few have immunity, a high percentage of those we know that has had Covid-19 have died, and without pro-active intervention ( social distancing, testing, and isolation of those infected), it has proven to spread like wild fire. The present laws, mandates, recommendations, lock downs, etc…whatever you want to call these instructions… have been put in place because leadership and the medical community has long known that most people WILL NOT DO WHAT IS NECESSARY on their own volition.
The sooner folks comply, the sooner this country gets back onto it’s economic feet…and I get to go back to work, planning on attending all the aviation events I normally attend. The sooner folks comply, the sooner I get a paycheck and get to burn fuel, use parts, and keep current doing what I really enjoy. I believe folks who find that doing what is necessary too much a pain in the a#! are the ones prolonging my unemployment, putting my family unnecessarily in harms way, consider 60K dead an unpleasant nightly box score, and prolonging or preventing any reasonable hope of defeating this pandemic. I want less dead, faster economic recovery, better long term assurance of living, and seeing aviation thrive again.
I am sure you do too. And I want to be happy, elated, that this early compliance leads to a body count waaaay below the best estimates. I will not be a sore winner complaining less died than predicted. My “protectionist” world has proven stats. Your world-view also has demonstrative stats. Mine is the only one that has and will “flatten the curve”. Yours has proven to ignite Covid-19 epicenters all over the globe, all over various places in the US.