How to mitigate the coronavirus

1. It's possible the US will soon look something like Italy looks now. So let's look at what's happening in Italy.

Italy has issued a decree to all its people. Italians are supposed to stay at home. Generally speaking, they're only allowed to leave their homes for work, food, and health. Those are the three main reasons.

If people leave home, then police can stop them, ask for their ID, ask where they're going, and ask why. If it's not a good reason, they could be sent back home. Or they could be fined. Or even imprisoned.

Also, when people leave their homes, they're supposed to go alone. Or with as few people as possible.

Everyone has to keep a distance of at least 1 meter (~3 feet) from another person when they are outside.

Pretty much all public events and places, movie theaters, gyms, clubs, pubs, even sporting events like soccer matches have been closed or canceled. No funerals or weddings allowed either. Schools and universities have shutdown; they're doing online education instead.

However, public transportation remains open to a degree. Same with necessities like hospitals.

I think outbound flights are still allowed. Presumably to allow foreigners to return home. But otherwise the entire nation is quarantined.

That's a bird's-eye look at what's happening in Italy. Again I bring it up because something along these lines may happen to us soon too.

2. Why does Italy look like this? It's part of mitigation strategies against the coronavirus. What are mitigation strategies? Basically, mitigation means attempting to slow the spread of the coronavirus. To dampen its effects. If a nation can slow the spread of the coronavirus, and dampen its effects, it will buy people more time to figure out how to better deal with the coronavirus.

3. By the way, the federal gov't does have stockpiles of medical equipment (e.g. ventilators, personal protective equipment) in anticipation of a pandemic. However, the question is whether or not there's enough.

We could produce more medical equipment, but a problem is that a lot of what's needed to produce more medical equipment is dependent on China and other nations. So we'd have to start finding domestic resources to produce medical equipment. I imagine this would be within our reach, but perhaps it may take some time. But time is short.

4. Obviously this will have a huge effect on society. The stock market has already responded to these fears.

Take closing schools. That's something that's debated. Should we close schools?

On the one hand, it currently appears kids are generally safe from deteriorating from coronavirus. So why not keep schools open? After all, if we close schools, then at least one parent may need to stay home and care for the kids. That may mean parents can't work or not work full-time. That will have a financial impact, especially if families are living from paycheck to paycheck.

Parents could ask grandparents for help, but the problem is grandparents are likely to be elderly so they're most at risk for deteriorating if they get coronavirus. So should we really be asking the elderly to help look after kids?

Not to mention this would likely impact health care workers too (e.g. physicians, nurses). So they'd have to take time off to care for their children. Yet we need more health care workers, not less, in light of the coronavirus.

On the other hand, maybe we should close schools. That's because kids may be at lower risk for deteriorating from coronavirus, but that doesn't mean they can't get coronavirus. They can still get it, even if they don't develop symptoms or they only develop mild symptoms. As such, kids would be vectors for the coronavirus. They can spread it to others.

Also, it's not ideal, but some workplaces allow people to work from home.

5. What can individuals do to help mitigate the coronavirus?

a. Handwashing. Regularly. Frequently. Wash every part of your hand - palms, fingers, thumbs, in-between the fingers, wrists, back of the hands. Soap and water are superior to hand sanitizers.

b. Limit touching the face. Our skin is a defense against pathogens entering our bodies, but pathogens can enter via openings in our bodies (e.g. eyes, ears, nose, mouth).

c. Avoid large gatherings. Keep a distance from people.

d. Work from home if possible.

e. Avoid traveling if possible.

f. Don't go to work if sick.

g. Don't go to the doctor's office let alone ER or hospital unless you urgently need care.

h. Consider getting a flu shot if you haven't already. It's not too late. You don't want to have both the coronavirus and the flu at the same time.

i. Don't panic. Keep calm. Pray.

6. Here's some potential hope from a recently published paper "How will country-based mitigation measures influence the course of the COVID-19 epidemic?":

What has happened in China shows that quarantine, social distancing, and isolation of infected populations can contain the epidemic.¹ This impact of the COVID-19 response in China is encouraging for the many countries where COVID-19 is beginning to spread. However, it is unclear whether other countries can implement the stringent measures China eventually adopted. Singapore and Hong Kong, both of which had severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemics in 2002–03, provide hope and many lessons to other countries. In both places, COVID-19 has been managed well to date, despite early cases, by early government action and through social distancing measures taken by individuals.

7. Also, this article "How innovation is helping mitigate the coronavirus threat" is somewhat encouraging. Americans (among others) have often been an innovative people. I think the coronavirus could mobilize us as a nation to invent and develop medical and related technology to help combat the pandemic.

8. And this paper is helpful for health care workers: "What US Hospitals Should Do Now to Prepare for a COVID-19 Pandemic".