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All of the things you've noted are true, but the flip side is that that there seems to be a "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" (or worse, flat out pandemic denialism) mentality that takes hold instead of thinking about whether it would be possible to push for some of the most obvious policies that have been shown to be the most effective (eg, enforcing testing and quarantine for all travelers, improved science communication around a respiratory pandemic). Also, it's been 10+ months, so to the degree that developed countries like the US lack sufficient PPE manufacturing, it's certainly not down to resources or capabilities (or anything besides political will in the US considering the DPA could be invoked at any time). Also, most countries still seem to be ignoring the best/cheapest way to control spread via rapid testing and isolation. This has been not only modeled extensively at this point [1][2], but also proven to be effective by sports leagues (NBA, MLB) and Universities (look at where UIUC has kept their numbers vs the state: https://go.illinois.edu/COVIDTestingData ) [1] Larremore, Daniel B, Bryan Wilder, Evan Lester, Soraya Shehata, James M Burke, James A Hay, Milind Tambe, Michael J Mina, and Roy Parker. “Test Sensitivity Is Secondary to Frequency and Turnaround Time for COVID-19 Surveillance.” Preprint. Infectious Diseases (except HIV/AIDS), June 25, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.22.20136309. [2] Atkeson, Andrew, Michael C. Droste, Michael Mina, and James H. Stock. “Economic Benefits of COVID-19 Screening Tests.” National Bureau of Economic Research, November 2, 2020. https://doi.org/10.3386/w28031. |