As protests mount for governors across the country to reopen their states for business recent polls show that almost six out of ten people are worried about loosening restrictions too soon. I wonder how many of that sixty percent are people working from home without having suffered any lost income. Indeed, I wonder how many of those who have lost no income in the midst of the current restrictions will also receive a check from the government.
I suspect that if everyone among that sixty percent was out of work that percentage wouldn't be nearly so high.
Another thought: here in Pennsylvania, and I expect elsewhere as well, over half the fatalities due to covid have occurred among nursing home patients. It would seem that these people would be the easiest to protect from the virus via constant monitoring, quarantine and minimal contact with outsiders.
If we took measures to enhance the safety of these most vulnerable could we not reopen the state and get back to work? There'd still be some risk of contracting the disease, but for most of the workforce, except those with co-morbidity factors like obesity and diabetes, the risk of very severe infection would be minimal.
I'm certainly not a medical expert, and perhaps there's more to this that I'm not aware of, but by staying shut down we may be trading safety from covid in exchange for greater risk of personal economic devastation with accompanying suicide, domestic abuse and opioid addiction. For many, that probably doesn't seem like a wise trade.
I imagine that for a lot of folks the risk of a covid infection is one worth taking if the alternative is the loss of their business and livelihood.