Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Seenso 2283 days ago
> There's no cure. Bodies will pile up regardless.

There's not cure, but there is treatment. Many deaths will be avoidable if we can slow down the spread, to spread out the load to avoid overwhelming the medical system too much.
1 comments
m0zg 2283 days ago
We're already slowing down the spread. The country is pretty much shut down. And you aren't going to be able to test ~60 _million_ people who will ultimately be infected with this (using 2009 H1N1 estimates). This is not an excuse to the utter CDC/FDA incompetence/sabotage we're witnessing, it's just a statement of fact. We're in the uncharted waters with this, countermeasures of even the _current_ magnitude have never been applied before.
link
Seenso 2283 days ago
> The country is pretty much shut down.

No, it isn't yet. I'm in the office right now, with thousands of my colleagues.

> And you aren't going to be able to test ~60 _million_ people who will ultimately be infected with this

Maybe not, but you don't want to discourage people from getting tested now. Getting a positive test is an important cue to take extra stringent isolation measures.

Aggressive testing helps reduce the need for stringent, general measures like lockdowns:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-respon...

link