Alrighty, except where you gonna get one?....

@AnneWimsey Again, any sitting president has the authority to invoke the Defense Production Act to force national industries to produce whatever is needed. This should have already been done, especially for everyone that has to work with the public.

Seven million people are estimated to have died in the Great Depression.

[google.com]

@WilliamFleming In it, or because of it..? The first Depression was a decade long.. Other than bankers diving from windows, American’s were not dying of starvation. Now the Pandemic of ‘18 - that was quick, like this stuff..

@Varn Sorry, I just read the title of the article, but actually it appears that you are right.

It appears that in general people were healthier and lived longer during the depression—news to me.

I think you are not thinking globally. The situation in India is already horrific. How many of the MILLIONS of day workers trecking hundreds of miles on foot do you think will die from a combination of disease & economic hardship?

Again, any sitting president has the authority to invoke the Defense Production Act to force national industries to produce whatever is needed. This should have already been done with respirators, ventilators, & other sorely needed PPE. Reasonable restrictions could also be placed - like, say, move people's cubicles 6 feet apart, ask employees to take lunch in their vehicles, etc. If this were enacted, many (though most certainly not all) industries could reopen, thus minimizing the global economic impact. I don't know what's going on where you live, but here in Kentucky many businesses remain open, no one is wearing face masks, & no one is maintaining any extra distance from anyone else. People are still gathering in their homes - all my neighbors are constantly receiving visitors. Tell me again how this is supposedly "flattening the curve?"

@Nunya he invoked it weeks ago, but never implemented it.....you are frantically grasping at chimeras.

@AnneWimsey Then it should be implemented, huh?

@Nunya The governors of states on both coasts are banding together to get things done. Waiting on the OrangeIdiot = Death.

How about if it's a bee and you're allergic without an epipen.

Again, any sitting president has the authority to invoke the Defense Production Act to force national industries to produce whatever is needed. This should have already been done with respirators, ventilators, & other sorely needed PPE. Reasonable restrictions could also be placed - like, say, move people's cubicles 6 feet apart, ask employees to take lunch in their vehicles, etc. If this were enacted, many (though most certainly not all) industries could reopen with a reasonable degree of safety, thus minimizing the global economic impact. I don't know what's going on where you live, but here in Kentucky many businesses remain open, no one is wearing face masks, & no one is maintaining any extra distance from anyone else. People are still gathering in their homes - all my neighbors are constantly receiving visitors. Tell me again how this is supposedly "flattening the curve?"

@Nunya drump invoked that Act weeks ago but never implemented it...not one step taken! Wake Up!

@Nunya

That sounds like a recipe for disaster. People are taking it much more seriously here in MD. Some businesses remain open but many won't allow people inside, they bring the stuff you buy to your car. Others keep track of how many people are inside and won't allow more than 5 or 10 or 15 people in depending on the size of the building. There are lines drawn 6 feet apart at check out and people are meant to stay spread out. The majority of people you see out and about are wearing face masks.

Despite all of these precautions, our numbers are much higher than yours in Kentucky. I assume that is because we have a much higher population density and it reached us sooner. If people are behaving so cavalier about it as you described, I bet it will hit your state hard too before long. People will start to take it more seriously then. It was like that here at first too. I went to home depot two weeks ago and the cashier said she wanted to wear a mask but management won't allow it because they don't want to scare customers away. I went back yesterday and all of the employees were wearing masks. At this point, pretty much everybody knows somebody who has it so it has become much more real. My best friends brother has it as well as a coworker of mine.

As far as flattening the curve goes, as far as I can tell, the precautions we are taking are working. We haven't seen the worst of it yet but so far, our medical system has not been overwhelmed. Apparently, the hospitals have been less busy than usual because people are staying home rather going out and about getting injured and many non-emergency procedures have been postponed. That's a good thing, it mostly frees up the system to deal with COVID.

I think the longer we keep these precautions in place, the better off we will be. Sure work places can be made safer but really, if it's not essential work, why risk it? All that stuff can wait a couple more months until all of this danger blows over.

@AnneWimsey Woman, no one is saying he will - I'm stating my opinion this is what SHOULD be done.

@RoboGraham I simply disagree because this disease is not going to magically disappear in a "couple more months" and people will still not be protected when things inevitably will have to reopen or face economic disaster. It would take at least a couple of months to manufacture the PPE needed for everyone anyway if all available industry was directed toward that task. This situation is a ticking time bomb.

@Nunya

Of course it won't be over in a few months but the curve will be flattened by then. That's the entire point of doing this shut down.

@RoboGraham Again, I disagree. Just look to reports predicting another surge in China because they are re-opening industry without giving their population proper protection.

@Nunya

These things always have second waves. I'm not saying that we should wait a while then send everyone back to work as if things have gone back to normal. Of course we need to take proper precautions when we do open the economy up again.

The point I'm making is that we shouldn't do that until the curve has been flattened and hopefully by the time the restrictions are lifted and the economy re-opens, people and businesses will have the protections needed to go back to work safely because during this time of quarantine, we will be producing those things in large numbers.

@RoboGraham Well, I hope it goes down like that. Not so confident it will at the moment.

@Nunya

Same here

Again, any sitting president has the authority to invoke the Defense Production Act to force national industries to produce whatever is needed. This should have already been done with respirators, ventilators, & other sorely needed PPE. Reasonable restrictions could also be placed - like, say, move people's cubicles 6 feet apart, ask employees to take lunch in their vehicles, etc. If this were enacted, many (though most certainly not all) industries could reopen with a reasonable degree of safety, thus minimizing the global economic impact. I don't know what's going on where you live, but here in Kentucky many businesses remain open, no one is wearing face masks, & no one is maintaining any extra distance from anyone else. People are still gathering in their homes - all my neighbors are constantly receiving visitors. Tell me again how this is supposedly "flattening the curve?"

@ToolGuy I'm glad Canada is doing at least somewhat of a better job in their handling of this.

Again, any sitting president has the authority to invoke the Defense Production Act to force national industries to produce whatever is needed. This should have already been done with respirators, ventilators, & other sorely needed PPE. Reasonable restrictions could also be placed - like, say, move people's cubicles 6 feet apart, ask employees to take lunch in their vehicles, etc. If this were enacted, many (though most certainly not all) industries could reopen with a reasonable degree of safety, thus minimizing the global economic impact. BECAUSE EVERYONE WOULD BE REQUIRED BY LAW TO WEAR A N95 RESPIRATOR & PROTECTIVE EYE GEAR. I don't know what's going on where you live, but here in Kentucky many businesses remain open, no one is wearing face masks, & no one is maintaining any extra distance from anyone else. People are still gathering in their homes - all my neighbors are constantly receiving visitors. Tell me again how this is supposedly "flattening the curve?"

Ok - so, this infectious disease expert recommends that we keep schools open & says over 600,000 renal patients could die because of the collapse of pharmaceutical manufacturing in China. I think he is proving my point.