Interesting point.... discuss
Epidemiologist: Coronavirus could be 'exterminated' if lockdowns lifted. 'What people are trying to do is flatten the curve. I don't really know why'
The unprecedented policy of mass quarantine to "flatten the curve" is only prolonging the coronavirus pandemic, contends a veteran scholar of epidemiology. The virus could be "exterminated" within weeks if people were allowed to lead normal lives and the vulnerable were sheltered until the virus passes, said Knut Wittkowski, Ph.D., the former head of the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design at the Rockefeller University in New York City.
https://www.wnd.com/2020/04/epidemiologist-coronavirus-exterminated-lockdowns-lifted
Not sure if serious.
We have a virus for which there is no functioning vaccine and the pharmacological interventions available are experimental at best without any viable cocktail to effectively treat and/or contain the virus.
Herd immunity would work, if we had a vaccine. Short of that, by sending out Americans (country ranking #12 in highest obesity rates) to conduct business as usual, we take an insurmountable risk. Remember that risk factors include heart disease, pulmonary disease, renal disease, Diabetes, Obesity, an immunocompromised state and advanced age (to name a few). If you look at the actual demographics of professional bodybuilding, the foundation by which this and other bodybuilding websites sit on would be pulled out from underneath given that 98% of professional bodybuilders walk the earth in an obese state with heart disease (high blood pressure/high cholesterol) and likely compromised renal capacity given their propensity to use NSAIDs. If you wanted to thin out the IFBB herd, this idea might be the ticket needed to get new faces on the Olympia stage.
Unfortunately, it's a little too risky to take such an ambitious risk, given that this virus has proven to be astronomically deadly in those with the aforementioned risk factors. What we do know is that children and the young (teenagers etc) are relatively spared, as are adults (<55yrs of age) with no major risk factors. Spared in the sense that while they do get the coronavirus and experience terrible flu-like symptoms with the additional shortness of breath, most recover without developing the full cascade of pneumonia > Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome > Septic shock > Systemic inflammatory response syndrome > Multiple System organ failure.
I think that given a little more time (how much time exactly, I don't know), true infectious disease experts like ID medical doctors (not just an epidemiologist that only studies stats and figures) & the pharmaceutical companies (chemists/scientists) developing new treatments, will hopefully find a viable pharmacological cocktail and/or vaccine, via a lot of empirical treatment + trial and error, that will help us in properly treating this pathogen.
Remember, the conservative percentage of survival vs death we have heard on the news suggest that 98.5% survive the virus, but that 1.5% suffer fatality. If it is true that this virus will likely affect all Americans, are we as a country truly ready to take the risk of having all 331,002,651 Americans infected, knowing that there is a high chance that 4,965,039 of them will die? Are we potentially ready for that death toll? I am not too sure. Most of us would be fine, but a select group would die.
Whereby, the other option is to continue with social distancing, allow those that are sick (but not dying) to slowly recover, develop antibodies to the disease and hopefully no longer be contagious AND then slowly reopen the flood gates to business as usual in society. By doing this, although a slow and incredibly frustrating process, we have a better chance at reducing the overall number of deaths.
Just my $0.02,
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