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> think that the best possible plan is for everyone to get infected

That's like asking why does everyone think the best plan is for the sun to rise tomorrow morning.

It's not a "plan", it is fact. Everyone (to some level of precision) will be either have anti-bodies from infection or have been vaccinated (or the unrealistic enough to ignore; remain in isolation their entire life).

We don't have a choice in that. We can try to alter the parameters (rate, timing, etc.) of that. But, that is the limit of our control.




No, it's not a fact!

We don't run massive test and trace programs against cold viruses because they are relatively less harmful. We easily have the resources to run a massive test, trace, isolate and support program against COVID-19, and we can eradicate it using those methods.

And if a vaccine comes out before suppression is complete, so much the better.

The fact that we have only ever eradicated a pandemic by using vaccines is no reason to not try doing it without one. It's very hard to understand why people aren't screaming to spend a few hundred billion dollars to start doing this right now, as the payoff is essentially incalculable.


The defeatist mindest is really baffling to me as well.

I think some people must consider the economy to exist in a vacuum. But economics is based on confidence in the future.

A robust, unified, can-do response would do wonders to shore up that confidence.




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