I am not an epidemiologist, here is what I think the U.S. should do about COVID-19

The United States is not doing well with COVID-19. I am not going to be political, play the blaming game, and say nothing constructive, especially because COVID-19 is a national thing… a global thing. I personally think we are gambling with all that talk about vaccines and our policymakers should not bet on an ETA of a working vaccine but develop policies to combat this virus. Assuming there is no truly functional vaccine and we will continue with all the basic stuff like mass testing, here are what I would do after learning from the epidemiologist…

TL;DR

1. National mandate on mask and distancing for all public venues
2. Two lines of Mask Production and other PPE
3. Public Health and Factual Media Mandate
4. Nourish a new culture of hygiene
5. Contact Tracing
6. Bridge the gap between the PoPo and well, the people
7. Restriction on long-distance travel
8. Close the gap on the two tails of “K”
9. New normal and ten years from now

National mandate on mask and distancing for all public venues

Learning from countries like South Korean, PRC, and New Zealand, etc. The people in their respective countries are pretty much back to their regular routines, some may even say almost a pre-COVID rhythm. So can we!

We already know there aren’t any ways to completely reduce the transmission rate to zero. While we could do that theoretically, we still have essential workers, and people who believe in false information, to help us spread it. This means we would have to go for the next best thing, mask mandate and laws enforcing social distancing. Even the recently published controversial CDC study suggested that,

“To help slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, precautions should be implemented to stay home once exposed to someone with COVID-19,** in addition to adhering to recommendations to wash hands ** https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html. often, wear masks, and social distance.†† If a family member or other close contact is ill, additional prevention measures can be taken to reduce transmission, such as cleaning and disinfecting the home, reducing shared meals and items, wearing gloves, and wearing masks, for those with and without known COVID-19.§§

The findings in this report are subject to at least five limitations…”

Two lines of Mask Production and other PPE

When I walk down on the street, I still see a lot of people wearing a one-off mask. The U.S. should revive the plan the Trump Administration killed and send every single American a reusable mask. All the hospitals and networks should also develop a collective contract with mask manufacturer, if they have not already done so, to secure all the PPE they would need.

Public Health and Factual Media Mandate

With COVID, there will be a need to restrict movement and freedom of expression. In this case, specifically, all outlets of media and public figures should be accountable for the information they put out. If Facebook allows false information on the platform, they should be fined. If MSNBC shares false information, they should be fined. If these outlets continue to share false information, the executives and the “reporters” should be criminally charged as well as culpable for class action in civil suits. Some may worry this could erode the Freedom of Speech guaranteed by the 1st Amendment, this is why we may be very careful in the wording of stating what NOT to allow. Freedom of speech does not protect someone from making threats or blackmail either, because that is a reflection of malice intent. False information from media outlets and public figures should also be held to a higher standard before it’s their responsibility to fact check with due diligence before sharing the information with the general public. Otherwise, it’s no less than Gross Neiglience if not Reckless Endangerment of others.

Nourish a new culture of hygiene

It’s easy to blame the Russian or the Chinese, or whoever our next foe maybe. All they can do is hack and spread misinformation. It’s not like our soil is under attack by them. It’s our responsibility to be diligent in our decisions and inquiries of information. It’s also our responsibility to think beyond the scope of what we see every day, whether it’s our community or the news, and look at things from a macroscopic point of view. It’s easy to focus on people and things immediate to you, but we are in such a connected world, whether you like it or not, it’s our responsibility to be aware of it at least, because you know, democracy. This means people would have to adjust themselves with time, and at this time we need to update our personal and interpersonal hygiene and consider mask-wearing and social distancing as a new norm and as part of our daily fashion.

Contact Tracing

Let’s be real, if Uncle Sam wants to track you, they would have done that already. They don’t need to put a chip in you or ask you for your permission. They have the Patriot Acts by the Bush Administration and NSA. Also, look at what you are reading this article on? That said, freedom of movement comes with sacrifice, in the forms of money or other things. Perhaps it’s due to different agencies being independent of each other or Uncle Sam wants to do it the right way with public trust. Either way, to help combat COVID-19 it should become common knowledge to understand what contact tracing is and how it works. While contact tracing is not a mandate at the moment, it should be, and there should be developed by a non-governmental agency, a third party with the entire source published on a public code repository for transparency. This should be a national focus instead of letting the State government act on it themselves because I, for one, travels.

Bridge the gap between the PoPo and well, the people

Another issue we have seen quite a lot is the hypocrisy of both sides of the political spectrum. I hope the country would unite again under a common threat, but I was too naive. I support BLM, a decentralized movement that promotes equal justice for black Americans, but I do wish they would protest with social distancing and proper mask-wearing. (I am not going to talk about the anti-lockdown/anti-mask side… because you know…) However, here is the thing, when we have laws about mask mandate, we need to popo to help enforce that since they are the Law Enforcement arm of the society. Perhaps their origin were slave catchers (at least the ones from the South?), perhaps they are racist, or maybe there few [tons of] bad apples and popo reform are probably much needed (See my other post). We, nonetheless, cannot function coherently without being in sync across all different levels of society and law enforcement is an important piece of it. The local government needs to make a deal and act as a peacemaker between the two groups.

Restriction on long-distance travel and InterState Businesses

The federal government needs to set up an inter-gubernatorial committee with the federal government to develop a comprehensive strategy for the state to state businesses and a coherent line of communication to reflect these strategies to the people.

Close the gap on the two tails of “K”

Even if everyone were to start wearing masks today, there are still lag times before things can get back to near normal and the new norm could still affect many businesses, especially the small businesses in the services sector. It is also becoming increasingly clear that we are seeing the major discrepancy in economic recoveries between big techs and retail/services businesses. The government needs to provide direct relief for these small businesses by covering the property tax payment for the property owners, property taxes go to the local government not the federal, and at the same time broker deals with investors, especially those own CMBS, to allow borrowers to defer their payment and ability to adjust their rent. This should continue until the economic activities among small/retail businesses have recovered to 85% of the pre-COVID level. This topic alone would need a comprehensive policy around it, from tax law update to lending and other reinvestment (such as UBI). (To be discussed on a different day.)

New normal and ten years from now

Things will adjust by then, in ten years, but for now, we need to have comprehensive strategies, from the initiative in hygienic behavior to financial relief to making information reporting accountable, without turning ourselves into an authoritarian state.