The idea of quarantining during the current pandemic has been to protect those with weakened immune systems. It hasn’t worked. According to Business Insider the CDC says 80% of deaths have been among the elderly. Elder care facilities account for the bulk of those deaths. Many of us can and have caught the virus, some without realizing it, and been barely sickened.
The elderly are a wonderful resource. Their wisdom and experience are invaluable. Imagine the things they could tell us about the situation we find ourselves in today? Memories about the past compared to our circular future. A woman like Adela Rodgers St John, who died in 1988, remembered the rise of the Third Reich. She worked for William Randolph Hearst and was a prolific writer. She would definitely be able to identify patterns and compare them to the past. Wisdom like hers is invaluable. How many like her have we lost?
Our economy has suffered immensely. This really plays into our internal socialist threat, those trying to create a situation like the one in post World War I Germany to exploit. So far their eternal war and economic destruction derby have failed to yield a socialist government, as have their rape of our Constitution and Federal Laws. Job losses have been devastating. This New York Times Op/Ed asks “Jobs Aren’t Being Destroyed This Fast Elsewhere. Why Is That?“
Hopefully this COVID 19 thing will be over soon so as not to interfere with the upcoming elections.
Perhaps a better strategy, one we can use for the next pandemic, would be to forego the mass shutdown and simply quarantine elder care facilities with the employees. It would have to be written into their contracts. They could each have been paid $10K a month on top of their salaries and it would cost less than the current stimulus. Elderly at home would have to rely on the common sense of relatives, much like they do now. The entire economy wouldn’t be in a pointless free fall.
Hindsight is 20/20 so let’s not screw the pooch next time around.