This has been obvious for months -- Romer has been yelling from the rooftops about it -- and yet no major western govt save the Brits have attempted to even try this strategy. Madness.
> and yet no major western govt save the Brits have attempted to even try this strategy.
The per-capita death rate in the UK is one of the worst in the world for this pandemic, and it's higher than the USA's. And they are now into a second lockdown. Whatever their strategy is, it's not working well at all.
Because the more effective and proven strategy is to simply pay businesses and people to lockdown.
It has been effectively eliminated in both Australia and NZ this way. And the impact to the economy is significant but it's turning out to be far less severe than the rest of the world and their on/off again strategy.
This is anything but simple. Vast majority of businesses and people will not be supported if indefinite lockdown continues. The hidden costs of bankrolling an entire country for an indefinite period is much greater than the cost to deploy a persistent, scalable testing framework. The latter is also an investment into the future as this will not be the last pandemic.
China moved on from lockdowns over 6 months ago. They switched to citywide testing with 5:1 and then 10:1 pooled PCR tests in May and then recently switched to pooled rapid antigen testing. With the current testing methodology, they place one sample on a test strip, wait to see if there's a color change, and if not, they'll put a subsequent sample on. You can use a single antigen test for up to 10 people and patients get their results while at the testing site.
twblalock|5 years ago
The per-capita death rate in the UK is one of the worst in the world for this pandemic, and it's higher than the USA's. And they are now into a second lockdown. Whatever their strategy is, it's not working well at all.
threeseed|5 years ago
It has been effectively eliminated in both Australia and NZ this way. And the impact to the economy is significant but it's turning out to be far less severe than the rest of the world and their on/off again strategy.
anonytrary|5 years ago
This is anything but simple. Vast majority of businesses and people will not be supported if indefinite lockdown continues. The hidden costs of bankrolling an entire country for an indefinite period is much greater than the cost to deploy a persistent, scalable testing framework. The latter is also an investment into the future as this will not be the last pandemic.
eloff|5 years ago
shalmanese|5 years ago