I’d bet if a handful of us sat down at a table we could have a good plan in place in less than a day. The divide is being created by people trying to stay in power on both sides. There are common sense solutions. Just not common sense politicians.
Yeah, back to the solutions.
Obviously, 100% transparency on numbers. Which Kentucky is about the worst in the country on this.
1. Re-open all schools with OPTION of virtual learning. Work with surrounding states to pair at risk teachers with virtual students regardless of district. Would require a validation waiver for students to use the bus. Save those for single parents only. Separate schools in to cohorts. Use empty conference centers in hotels, etc for classrooms that couldn't meet distancing requirements.
THEN
2. Stop testing asymptomatic people unless they were visiting at risk family.
3. Move to almost exclusive antigen rapid testing. Verify positives with lab tests. I would find as many rapid tests as I could acquire and distribute them to prisons and long term care facilities. Family would test on entry and visit with patients in a designated negative pressure area that government subsidized. We're testing thousands of citizens and can't even get LTC facilities tested frequently. The fact KY hasn't slowed Long Term Care outbreaks and deaths goes to show their level of competence with this.
4. Scrap contact tracers and shift to census and reporting for infections. Work on large scale antibody testing. Require a digital survey for found infections, with list of close contacts. People should be more apt to comply with digital than a phone call. Also, less stress about getting others quarantined.
5. With that data determine what are high risks areas. If restaurants are, require an HVAC company to certify (x) number of air changes in the building, open windows are cheap and effective, and theoretically reduce capacity to 50%. Adequate spacing between tables and no bar area standing. Same with bars. No restrictions on hours, that's ridiculous. Again, I would need to see proof these are drivers of infection.
6. Encourage people to work out, take vitamins C/D/Zinc, improve diet and lose weight. Gyms would need similar certification from HVAC companies with suggestions on air changes. Then encourage then to stay within their network of common people and eliminate expanding it. So basically cohort ourselves. If you're going out of it to see at risk, get a rapid test on the way.
7. Adjust our stupid zone system to common sense. So a county isn't on red after 12 positives.
We're(Ky) just more concerned about catching every single infection than fighting the virus on a large scale. Forrest/ Trees.
My last post over here, sticking to the bigsexycat thread. One is plenty for me.
