COVID-19 Precautions

It is time to really pay attention to preventing the spread of illness within the United States, and after a lengthy discussion of the possible ways to do that within my health care system, I hope that we can manage this.  The longer we delay the epidemic, the lower the peak numbers will be, and the less people who will die.  Wash your hands as if your life and the lives of others depends on it.

That said, governments will not be able to limit both deaths from COVID-19 and the economic impact of viral spread. Keeping mortality as low as possible will be the highest priority for individuals; hence governments must put in place measures to ameliorate the inevitable economic downturn.  COVID-19 has developed into a pandemic, with small chains of transmission in many countries and large chains resulting in extensive spread in a few countries, such as Italy, Iran, South Korea, and Japan.   Most countries are likely to have spread of COVID-19, at least in the early stages, before any mitigation measures have an impact.  What has happened in China shows that quarantine, social distancing, and isolation of infected populations can contain the epidemic. The impact of the COVID-19 response in China is encouraging but it is unclear whether other countries can implement the stringent measures China eventually adopted.