The Covid-19 epidemic poses a dilemma. We are unfortunate this has happened in a presidential election year, which greatly increases the incentive to politicize things which shouldn’t be. A conspiracy theorist would exchange “It is no accident...” for “We are unfortunate...” in the preceding sentence.
As a society we need people to live, not die; and we need people to continue economic activity, not idle at home. If, at one extreme, we almost all live but end up impoverished - in a Great Depression-style mess - we lose big time. If we go gung-ho back-to-work and many die who would have lived, we also lose a lot.
I suggest a natural experiment is going on right now that can help us plan what to do. We decided early on that grocery store employees were essential so they kept working right through the Covid-19 epidemic. Some wore masks, many stores put plastic shields between checkers and customers, but they kept working and do so today. A store we patronize has a clerk standing outside wiping the handles of returned carts with a disinfectant, mostly “cosmetic” but reassuring.
Someone needs to examine the store clerk population and determine if they have had greater serious illness incidence than those who stayed home, or worked from home. My impression is that they have had very little more hospitalization than a stay-home control group. If that is the case, then returning to work while taking precautions makes sense.
Schools - because of the human density - are another matter and perhaps require more rethinking. Maybe going to half-day sessions with half as many desks and pupils per room, a disinfectant wipe-down after each half-day and a focus on a pared-down 3Rs would do the trick.
My greater point: life has to go on, including economic life and for kids, growing up continues. We have to find the balance that works and keep moving. We need most pieces of this economy to function on a regular basis, and we need to identify and double-protect the most vulnerable who, evidence shows, are largely those in long-term-care facilities, including nursing homes.
