If you open a little early, you MAY create a bad problem.

If you stay closed too long, you DEFINITELY create a bad, bad problem. You no longer have the golden goose economy to buy your way out of any problems for the next few years. People lose everything they've worked to save over the last 10-40 years.

It's about damn time.

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Or the Sam Houston that lost his office because he refused to join the confederacy because he knew it was a lost cause.

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**** the confederacy.

74OA said:

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Texas is predicted to peak around 30 April.

Reopening the state in early May at peak infection seems like a major gamble.

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Model updated today and has changed drastically, says we have already passed the peak for hospitalizations and death total below 1k now

Open her up

Regardless of whether we open everything back up in may or june or even July, the American economy will completely recover the moment we find a vaccine. I don't understand how everything is on the line here. Have some faith in the American system. This isn't some systemic issue like 1929 or 2008, this is a temporary pause on operations. If companies aren't smart enough or lean enough to get through one hard patch then they may need to reconsider their business strategy.

Duncan Idaho said:

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I am sticking by my prediction that this is too early and we will be closed again by October.

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How about you lock yourself in your house for the rest of 2020 and the rest of us get on with our lives?

That's really simplistic. I work with a lot of restaurants (to take one example) and a lot of them operate on razor-thin margins, even the good ones. Our industry is talking that 20% of restaurants won't re-open or will be completely out of business by the end of the year. Medical and dental practices are reeling as well. Entire segments of the economy have been badly kneecapped and won't recover for a long time. How would you like to own a theater or concert hall right now?

Caleb12 said:

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Regardless of whether we open everything back up in may or june or even July, the American economy will completely recover the moment we find a vaccine. I don't understand how everything is on the line here. Have some faith in the American system. This isn't some systemic issue like 1929 or 2008, this is a temporary pause on operations. If companies aren't smart enough or lean enough to get through one hard patch then they may need to reconsider their business strategy.

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That's little solace for those who have lost their jobs during this.

It isn't that bad and we have massively overreacted.

Necrosis said:

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I too can draft things in MS paint, with no time scale, using the fallacy of corelation=causation.

I can do some fun ones, that would get both the liberal, neo conservative, and religious on the board( and the mods)to dislike me more than they do now, and would be "factual" based on the datum set I WANT to use. That's what that idealized nonsense is.

The goal has ALWAYS been to flatten the curve of new infection out to maintain treatment capacity, and allow development of therapeutics. That was the ONLY realistic goal in all this. Slamming everything open will backfire, but the magic unicorn of the bell curve illustrated above is not achievable, even if a vaccine is developed....this is not a video game.

One thing modern society, and not just genz and millennial, but the late boomers and gen x as well, struggles with is the video game mentality. Things don't magically reset when you start the towers collapse. You either have to move in and stop it by shoring it up, then repairing it, or let it fall and start all over again.

A phased in, intelligent response once the line has flattened will be the key....

Joe Exotic said:

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I watched the first part. Sam Houston (or a Texas leader in his spirit) would have said Texas is ready to get on with it, and will be open for business starting May 1.

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You mean the Sam Houston that methodically and patiently took his time after the Alamo to strike at the right time much to the displeasure of his troops to the point some even deserted?

Or the Sam Houston that lost his office because he refused to join the confederacy because he knew it was a lost cause.

That Sam Houston?

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That my friends, is what I like to call a historical ***** slap.

gougler08 said:

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74OA said:

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Texas is predicted to peak around 30 April.

Reopening the state in early May at peak infection seems like a major gamble.

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Model updated today and has changed drastically, says we have already passed the peak for hospitalizations and death total below 1k now

Open her up

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This

Actual numbers are way way below all the worst case expectations.
This virus is real but how can anyone not clearly see by now how media driven it is.
Yes I'm sorry that a 90 year old in hospice died of Covid 19 but overwhelming majority of deaths are exreme elderly with underlying conditions.
Our economy cannot and won't be shut down much longer.. we will so much more harm than good.

I understand schools closing because honestly it came down to... what's the point to return for 3 weeks?

But by June 1 I'd expect pretty much back to normal.

thelaw4 said:

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40% of Americans are obese, Covid is deadly to obese people including the younger ones

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Absolutely true. And ironically, they tell us folks who chose a truly healthy lifestyle that we cannot go to the gym. Strange how that works. I get why initially, and yes, one can do some sub optimal work at home or outside for a period of time and be ok, But, there is a much much greater pandemic of obesity in this world far greater than anything Covid-19 can throw at us that kills much more people every month than Covid can in a year. And that is massively taxing on our healthcare system in terms of time, money etc. Where and when will the response to that be? When will the government enact sweeping changes to American lifestyles to eliminate that from our world? And if they did, could you imagine the outcry from overweight and obese people who now are restricted from consuming their fried and processed crap all day and now have to go to the gym to train 3 times a week and check in to make sure it was accomplished. Oh, it's not fair! How dare you?!?!? Well, all they have to say is that they are saving lives. They know more than we do and this truly is a pandemic. They would be saving us from "ourselves". They'd be right in that sense. But you'd also lose your freedoms.

It's food for thought in all of this and now that we have gone through this, something that we probably do have to watch out for in terms of the nest great virus or health issue. Personally, as a very fit person who has made the choice to have a fit lifestyle, I'd be 100% against punishing obese people for their choices. Every time a city like NY bans sugary drinks or fast food, etc, I get up in arms about it. The fact is we should be free to decide if we want to be fat, fit or somewhere in between. But it is interesting that those that decide to be fit seem to be able to beat Covid and almost all viruses overall compared to those least fit in our population. Nothing is a guarantee ever, but shows me that more people do need to become fit overall.

Capitol Ag said:

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thelaw4 said:

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40% of Americans are obese, Covid is deadly to obese people including the younger ones

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Absolutely true. And ironically, they tell us folks who chose a truly healthy lifestyle that we cannot go to the gym. Strange how that works. I get why initially, and yes, one can do some sub optimal work at home or outside for a period of time and be ok, But, there is a much much greater pandemic of obesity in this world far greater than anything Covid-19 can throw at us that kills much more people every month than Covid can in a year. And that is massively taxing on our healthcare system in terms of time, money etc. Where and when will the response to that be? When will the government enact sweeping changes to American lifestyles to eliminate that from our world? And if they did, could you imagine the outcry from overweight and obese people who now are restricted from consuming their fried and processed crap all day and now have to go to the gym to train 3 times a week and check in to make sure it was accomplished. Oh, it's not fair! How dare you?!?!? Well, all they have to say is that they are saving lives. They know more than we do and this truly is a pandemic. They would be saving us from "ourselves". They'd be right in that sense. But you'd also lose your freedoms.

It's food for thought in all of this and now that we have gone through this, something that we probably do have to watch out for in terms of the nest great virus or health issue. Personally, as a very fit person who has made the choice to have a fit lifestyle, I'd be 100% against punishing obese people for their choices. Every time a city like NY bans sugary drinks or fast food, etc, I get up in arms about it. The fact is we should be free to decide if we want to be fat, fit or somewhere in between. But it is interesting that those that decide to be fit seem to be able to beat Covid and almost all viruses overall compared to those least fit in our population. Nothing is a guarantee ever, but shows me that more people do need to become fit overall.

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I see what you did there

Necrosis said:

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It is entirely possible for both there to be room to say actions have been beneficial in slowing the virus and that the virus was not as bad as originally projected. At one point there were going to be hundreds of thousands of deaths regardless of distancing efforts. That is not what current projections show.

I think gradually opening up the economy and putting more of the risk on people who are high risk is the right thing for everyone. High risk people need to create habits to protect themselves including continued isolation. The risk of death to young healthy people is very low. You can't ask people of low risk to give up their livelihoods, potentially putting their children at risk, to protect people in the high risk category. It's not fair

I say this being a person with several high risk factors. I will need to keep taking precautions to manage my risk, which may include risking my employment if my company opens back up, but I'm not comfortable reporting. But, that's where the risk needs to be, not on the entire population.

If high risk people continue to take precautions and If hospitals continue the practice of only treating the very ill, which are mostly high risk patients, then our hospital capacity should be able to handle some gradual reopening.

We have to do something different, staying shut in is a recipe for disaster, including a complete revolt by some.