For The Record

Not that anyone cares my societal coronavirus prescription, but here are some of my thoughts:

1) I support the two week "pause" our country is doing to prevent the health care system overload experienced in Italy and to help stop a "worst case scenario."

2) I don't think this stoppage is very sustainable from an economic and social standpoint.

3) In hindsight, I'm guessing the government response will be viewed as overkill, although it might take us a long time to get there.

4) If we had masks, testing, and some anti-viral treatments, I imagine we could get back to work.

5) It seems to me fairly obvious to repurpose cruise ships, hotels, etc, as temporary hospital type places where less severe coronavirus cases can go to recover.

6) A more intelligent way to provide economic assistance would be to target two sets of people: workers who lose their jobs because of this and the group that is particularly vulnerable to dying from the virus.

7) I view any data coming from China with deep suspicion.

8) Our preparation for this event was not very good.

9) I believe we as a country and individuals can grow and learn from the experience in several ways:

-Keep dry powder, ie resources for emergencies. For individuals this means emergency kits and emergency funds. For governments, I think it means getting some fiscal discipline in "non-emergency" times because we know what a real emergency now looks like.

-Do better at hygiene.

-Build extra capacity in the healthcare system