The longer this lasts the likelihood increases in which severe suffering from the lockdown will be worse than the virus itself. Why isn’t that discussed by the politicians? What is the correct balance?

I thought the only goal was to flatten the curve but the goals keep changing. This feels like the whack a mole game with different goals popping up.

If the situation is not getting worse or better in the coming months, what are we going to do? The number of “low risk” businesses is limited. What about other businesses? We should allow more businesses to reopen as long as they can implement temperature check.

No. It's a "process" not an event, JJ. Of course it evolves. And you're (and I'm) still here.

This pandemic is not unprecedented as the article says. Spanish Flu, Asian Flu, H1N1 were more deadly. Keeping healthy people at home is not a long term solution. People's lives and livelihoods are being destroyed every day we stay locked up. Black markets are developing. Sick, elderly, immunocompromised stay home. Let the young, healthy, working people take care of you. It's time to get our lives back.

Hopefully the low risk open air Farmers' Market in Pleasanton will reopen in May. People can easily comply with safe distancing as they do now in grocery stores. So having our local fresh produce available will go a long way to keeping us healthy with real food. Our Farmers' Market is not a "gathering place" as no tables and chairs are on site for people to linger and chat like some of the better ones provide, so the ban on gathering in groups should not be an issue.
PLEASE reopen our fresh produce market so we can get our organic fruits and veggies as we have for many, many years and support the small farmers and growers in our region so there will not be a real food shortage.

It appears that there is a growing awareness that we may have overreacted to the coronavirus threat.

Yes, sometimes the “cure” is worse than the disease.

@Wombat,

Staying at home and social distancing also lowers the overall total death rate as treatments like remdesivir, and other promising treatments become available. It isn't only about keeping hospital from exceeding capacity. Like Dr Birx said earlier this week -- We'll be socially distancing at least through the end of the summer. We need to keep listening to the experts.

@BobB

As I mentioned before, the medical experts see this problem from one perspective and one perspective only. They have no comment on the massive economic damage being done. They have no comment on the over 30 million lost jobs. They have no comment on all the people who have been evicted from their apartments, or on the people who have undoubtedly committed suicide as a result or their job losses and/or evictions. According to a recent article in The Economist (4/4/20), the suicide rate increases by about 3% for every 3% increase in unemployment. Alcohol abuse increases by about 25% for every 3% increase in unemployment.

The current coronavirus health threat is serious, but it's not the bubonic plague. Virtually shutting down the economy of the US was not warranted. It was an OVERREACTION, as many people even on these forums are coming to realize.

Calibrating a proper response to a health threat like this requires more than just the input of medical experts. We need to also consider the overall economy and the overall effect on society in order to determine what is best for society as a whole.

Perfect 20/20 Hindsight Vision........

@Wombat,

Easy with the caps. The white house task force is taking economic issues into account.

@BobB

Oh, goody. I'm glad that some people in government noticed that over 30 million more people are now out of work.

These flu comparisons just need to stop - they are woefully inaccurate. If the US had treated this virulently contagious, still poorly understood disease like any of those others, the slaughter and suffering would've been immense - easily several times the current death rate at least, as the health care system capacity would've been overwhelmed.

Do none of you remember that? The images of Italy? Mass graves elsewhere?
Inconveniently?

Look at what you're doing - comparing a relatively familiar and less virulent virus and its consequences in an UNtreated system, with the equal toll taken by Covid-19 SO FAR (it's still early), with all the countermeasures we've been using. The situations could hardly be more different.

So it may be fun to poke at the government, but for chrissakes remember that the conscious dismantling of preventive capacity is what got us in this mess. It's the Fifth Risk - that government will be so emaciated that it won't be able to keep us safe.

We in CA are fortunate to have a competent team in place and working tirelessly to both respond and anticipate data-driven next moves. We not only need to stay this course, but then INVEST in preventive capacity through government by all of us. Infrastructure ain't just roads and bridges - it's also contingency plans, stockpiles AND good public health science.

What about low risk indoor businesses with one or two employees?

Gov. Brown sold all the PPE stockpiles Gov. Schwarzenegger compiled! Once again a Democrat Governor sells us out...per LA Times. And as far a science goes, being in the sun and getting vitamin D is noted in study after study to be highly beneficial in staying well if exposed to Coronavirus. Newsom is doing the opposite by keeping us cooped up in our houses and by closing beaches and parks, why am I not surprised. This is a virus, you can stay in your house forever but it’s not going away, it mutates. Hence, no vaccine for AIDS, HERPES, SARS....only treatments. Open up our state now with masks and protocols, protect the most at risk, and stop prolonging the inevitable herd immunity!

@OpenU,

You said "This is a virus ... hence no vaccine".

You need to realize two of the most effective vaccines in human history were against viruses: small pox and polio. There are also many others: (measles virus, mumps virus, chicken pox virus ...). If you're going to talk about medical or scientific subjects, you need to at least have some idea what you are talking about.

If you want to "be in the sun and get vitamin D", you can take a walk in your neighborhood, but I'd recommend sun screen to avoid increasing your risk of skin cancer.