While We Are Fighting Wuhan Virus by Lockdown the Dutch Are Taking a Different Approach
Posted at 8:00 pm on March 16, 2020 by streiff

https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/03/16/800417/

Today, President Trump encouraged the country to come to a screeching halt for a couple of weeks to combat the spread of Wuhan virus. I have a lot of doubts that this will work–our neighbors to the north are still accepting flights from China–or can work. Wuhan virus is a part of our ecosystem. It, like influenza, will be something we just have to deal with until the end of time. The gamble is that this initial burst of the pandemic burns itself out, aided by increasing temperatures and humidity, before the economy craters. If we gamble wrong and Wuhan virus surges back after the informal lockdown periods cease, then all we’ve done in the long term is nothing. The flip side of the coin is that people who survive Wuhan…and here I’m talking about virtually everyone who gets it, are left with some degree of immunity but people who got through it by self-quarantine will be just as vulnerable 4 or 5 weeks or 4 or 5 months from now as they are today.

The other strategy available is to say f*** it, we can’t stamp this out, it’s going to be with us perpetually, let’s let it run its course, try to isolate the highest risk citizens, and rely upon what is known as herd immunity for protection. Herd immunity is defined by the CDC as “a situation in which a sufficient proportion of a population is immune to an infectious disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness) to make its spread from person to person unlikely.” That is what childhood vaccinations try to accomplish. If you can vaccinate 80% of the population, then the ability of a disease to spread approaches zero. That’s because most of the population can’t carry the disease and that protects the part of the population that cannot or will not vaccinate.

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Quote: EdJames wrote in post #1

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The other strategy available is to say f*** it, we can’t stamp this out, it’s going to be with us perpetually, let’s let it run its course, try to isolate the highest risk citizens, and rely upon what is known as herd immunity for protection.

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That is the clearest explanation of the choices available to us that I have seen.

Thanks!

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If it is the latter scenario, we have spent months in panic and billions TRILLIONS of dollars in lost productivity and next winter we’ll have to do what the Dutch did.

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That should be TRILLIONS.

Every day that Trump gets up there and spouts this garbage being shoved onto him, he reduces his chances at re-election more. He is literally slitting his own throat every time that he speaks about this....

Quote: Sanguine wrote in post #3

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That is the clearest explanation of the choices available to us that I have seen.

Thanks!

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Quote: Isailedaway wrote in post #6

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Seems this strategy is the same as we have with the flu, which has been with us a long time.

Take some simple precautions including a shot once a year, but that is about it other than don't stand in front of someone exhibiting prolonged coughing.

Let it run its course.

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Quote: Right_in_Virginia wrote in post #9

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The Dutch really should show some gratitude for the herd immunity the rest of the world is proving them.

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Quote: Right_in_Virginia wrote in post #11

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The spiraling coronavirus epidemic tore into the fabric of Europe on Tuesday, prompting its leaders to all but wall the continent off from the rest of the world and erect barriers within it, and to throttle back or turn off the engines of ordinary life and livelihoods in hopes of slowing the deadly spread.

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Quote: Right_in_Virginia wrote in post #11

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The Dutch really don't have to worry any more ... thanks to everyone else.

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Quote: Right_in_Virginia wrote in post #13

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Welcome to the new normal ... for 13 more days.

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