COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US)

Cage1 said
But then what? Let's say we grind everything to a halt and stop it at the price of people starving in the streets and national debt that crushes our dollar to levels we've never dreamed of. Well, as long as there is one case in the Philippines or Russia or Turkey, we'll have to shut down international travel indefinitely or else it will immediately ramp back up once one asymptomatic person slips through into a crowded airport.

I guess we might develop a vaccine in a few years. But we might not. And even if it's twice as effective as the flu vaccines, we'll still have millions of cases a year.

So are you proposing we grind the world to a halt until we find a vaccine that may never come? What's the end game?

Actually, you are right. All the mixed messages and constant shift in plans make it impossible to do a real coordinated shutdown. We got too far behind with testing to prevent the spread from going all over the country so we'll probably just have to live with it the next couple years until there is a vaccine or we gain herd immunity.

So we can just do a $2 Trillion fiscal stimulus plan every few months and only support airlines, cruise industries, auto makers, hotels, restaurants, entertainment industry and sports. If we do this every 2 months, then it'll only be $12 Trillion between now and next summer.