A majority of healthy people, with no underlying health conditions, will have very little or no
reaction at all to exposure to this virus. You can develop and maintain a strong immune system through proper diet and healthful living. That is the approach I have always taken.

@BDair I've heard all that. You go ahead and "get exposed". I have better things to do with my precious life.

I am fairly certain, that by now, nearly everyone has been exposed. This virus may have been around since the the beginning of the year, long before it was identified and any steps were taken to prevent its spread. I use public restrooms and showers daily. I have undoubtedly been exposed. My approach is to maintain my immune system through diet and vitamin supplements if needed. If I feel something coming on, I eat raw garlic and ginger and lots of citrus fruit until I am sure it has passed.

Well after reading this I don't expect to hear of any other free citizen who describes not having access to covid testing. If we are testing asymptomatic prisoners we have enough for all!

@Flowerwall not the point but yes. There needs to be lots and lots of testing before opening anything back up, and they definitely need to look at the percentage of symptomatic people. Prison inmates especially need tested though. Social distancing is not possible for them.

@JonnaBononna I did just read the other day, was it one or two people who had died after being sent home rejected for tests. So asymptomatic prisoners tested BEFORE sick, free citizens? Hmm, I see a problem with that. See here is an example. [businessinsider.com] We have asymptomatic prisoners who we know are positive and a dead healthcare worker rejected not once or twice but FOUR times for covid testing! I think this situation is appalling. I will bet we have other citizens who have been turned away for testing and died as result. This article is not describing a one-of-a-kind scenario.

As to the percentage of asymptomatic, I have heard ranges of asymptomatic from 20% to 80%, never heard of 96%. I don't believe the numbers reflect what is going on in the outside world. Something may be causing this in these situations that has not been factored in.

South Korea did extensive testing and has a mortality rate of 2.23%. And that number is in line with other numbers of 20% having symptoms that would be described as "critical" [theguardian.com]

we are not and we don't not a reliable test

@JonnaBononna Thank you. A corrections officer thanks you.

@Flowerwall The issue isn't only that prisoners are being tested because they don't have a choice about social distancing, and once the infection is in it's going to spread like wildfire. (Example- one facility here in Michigan found approximately 300 positive cases in a day once they began testing all the prisoners.) The issue is that staff like me have no choice but to go to work and face exposure, and we have no way of knowing which prisoners have the virus unless they're tested, so we can't take appropriate measures other than wearing a mask and trying to stay 6 feet away from everyone- which is impossible when you have to make rounds in a housing unit or on the yard, There just isn't 6 feet to spare. So we face exposure every minute of the day, and then we risk bringing it home to our families, to strangers in stores, to who knows who? And it's a choice between doing our job or getting fired from our jobs. It's absolutely in the public interest to control the spread in prisons, because members of the public are also who go to work there.

@Paul4747 We have had this discussion in another thread. I think guards and medical workers should be tested before asymptomatic prisoners. Testing an entire facility of prisoners most of whom are not even sick, the article said 96%, whilel a lone medical worker is rejected for testing on FOUR separate occasions who IS SICK and subsequently dies is a SQUANDEROUS use of resources. Why this medical worker was denied testing I do not know, but there cannot be a good reason. I hear similar stories online - people DIEING now because of no testing. What is the point? You separate by risk group in prison, closely monitor incoming, how are whole facilities getting infected ? The prisoners have better accommodations and medical access than law abiding citizens! This comparison shows to me the government is mismanaging access to tests. Either that or racism is rearing its ugly head, which is still a govetnment problem because they are charged with protecting citizens. Either way we have a SERIOUS PROBLEM here. A medical worker has died with no covid test!

Lol

"civil breakdown and food riots are just one possibility." This does not look like a possibility. Government has stated there is NO possibility for food shortages. If we drag it on long enough, with lax leadership, the more likely a possibility it could become that some foods may be in shorter supply over a very LONG haul. Best to demand strict adherence to safety rules NOW.

Some business should be allowed open with safety measures in place (everyone in masks, caution at p/u). For instance my state demanded in person voting, which I very much opposed, but state saw no huge jump in cases. So some limited business activity with p/u being used as point of sale should not be discouraged, in my mind. I don't mean opening businesses where public can congregate.

@Flowerwall - it's not about food shortage at all - you can't buy food if you are out of money??? Lots of people have NO savings and rely on food assistance - how long will that last? Income inequality is rearing it's ugly head and millions of people around the world are not able to buy food - and that includes people here in the USA...

@FrostyJim Please familiarize yourself with various social safety net programs- food stamps, unemployment insurance, food banks. These programs are designed to help people through crisis times. Also charitable giving has increased to help the poorest. I recently heard of a great program headed by Yang, that is giving money to the very poor. It's only one example. I am sure there are more. We will be okay. I do worry for nations that have weak social nets.

Also we need to expect our government to institute policies that will end evictions and utility shut offs, across the board, everywhere. Everything should be done from a governing angle that supports "pause" in bill collecting - for individuals and businesses.

@Flowerwall - sorry but it will not succeed at such a necessary scale. Based on charity? Are you donating money? Based on government funding? Get real... what government funding? The social safety net is about to run dry... so just who will pay your utility bill, your mobile phone bill, your Internet bill, your rent or mortgage so you can buy food online? Look at the lines at good banks - it will just get worse and they cannot keep up with demand. It is not an easy problem to fix and food is just one issue - letting people return to work is not the answer either - it is really a lose-lose situation. There is no easy answer.

@FrostyJim I am not saying it is an easy situation, but let's not overstate how dire it is. "The social safety net is about to run dry" what are you basing that statement on? If our nation cannot handle a few months of quarantine and then bounce back, then we have no resilience and I refuse to believe this is the case!

We need to eliminate the idea of non-essential business and instead think of it in a different term. I don't think it's useful in some places. People respond by saying ALL businesses are essential. Also believe we need to eliminate privacy concerns that disallow discussion of location, general location, I mean, and possible sources of infection. We don't have clear ideas of where infection is even occurring other than county numbers. What good does THAT do?

Several studies suggest no, and/or that it mutates like the common cold, so you get another version...maybe deadlier.