Virus (Covid19 and the rest to come)
STOP THE SPREAD: What I would have done and still would do to save the lives and the economy in response to COVID19 is....
- Close the Borders If you want to stop foreign nationals from flying in from Canada and Mexico to get Vaccinated - Close the Borders. If you want to stop new mutant strains from infecting America - Close the Borders. From the day WHO (World Health Organization) declared a Global Pandemic -- at least a week late. Every nation should have Close its Borders to all nationals regardless of citizenship (to be repatriated through Quarantine Facilities), and none should have opened till neighboring states are vaccinated. Allowing them to create bubbles of bordering countries.
- Surveillance Measures Since SARS Hong Kong has had Thermal Cameras at all ports of entry to find people with fevers before they get on a flight or into society. Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs) can easily detect illnesses before symptoms and fevers appear. It seems TSA should be our first line of defense.
- Quarantine Facilities All international ports of entry should have dedicated permanent Quarantine (these can be airport hotels with hospital-level ventilation systems)
- Freeze Sealed Institutions: Jails, Prisons, Retirement Homes, Boarding Schools, and Military Bases... any self-sufficient facility with controlled access. No one in or out.
- Stop Domestic Travel: Seal ALL States, Counties, and Cities. Cancel ALL pending Flights, Trains, and Buses. And Have Medical Examinations & Quarantine en route. Coordinate freight shipments (flights, trucks, and trains). Sequestered crews or handoffs at borders.
INFORM THE PUBLIC: The importance of information is paramount in controlling the actions and society. It reduces fears, lies, and rumors.
- Issue an Emergency Alert. Asking everyone to head home till we understand what is safe.
- Home Survival Kits The US Postal Service should have delivered to every home a 4-pack of Masks (ideally with website and info printed on it), An Information Card with a QR Code link to a Disaster App, Website, and Call Center.
- Deploy an Emergency App that could be used for any Natural Disaster or Terror Attack. This app would allow for instant dissemination of important medical & curfew information in any language (text, speech, or video). Allow for self-reporting of symptoms (I feel well or I have a temperature). Filing for social services. Calling for emergency response, GPS Tracking (for Tracing), and Proximity Reminders (Using Bluetooth the app can beep when we are too close to another phone). Distribution of Financial Aid (FEMA Payments), Reservations (hold our place in line for testing, vaccinations, or supplies), Display Ration Cards to allow people to Work, Exercise, or buy Food (a simple program could schedule the public’s time outside to reduce the number of people in any one location). And display people's estimated and confirmed Infection Status.
- Lock Down everyone for 30day increments, except for First-Responders and Essential-Workers. Most office workers could work from home. Skeleton or split/crews could provide prepared food & groceries and even do so entirely by delivery (a grocery store has 100+ employees, which instead of stocking & checkout, could become drivers to deliver the food… reducing store contamination and customer/employee exposure. Most already have online ordering).
- Shut-Down All Bars, Gyms, and all presentation venues (conferences, churches, theatres, and arenas). All of which could safely open, to full capacity, using custom apparatus. But are currently the least vital facility in any nation. One can Drink, Pray, Workout, or watch a show or presentation almost anywhere.
- Elementary Schools being the exception due to the relatively low contagion risk among young people, though that risk increase with each mutation. All children could have continued to attend schools with their food services and added Surveillance Measures. Rather than building up the infrastructure for each child within each home (see Infrastructure). The teachers could always have conducted Zoom Classes from within the school. Children would all have laptops and headsets in the classroom and the features at home or somewhere on campus. Allowing every teacher the ability to, not only teach the entire class but also the ability to work independently with each child. TelaTeaching in the classroom is nothing new. In the 70s parochial schools used their own UHF TV channel, to teach Art, Science, and History. Prier to the Pandemic for-profit schools in Africa & India conducted class over a single iPad with only a Teachers Aid in the classroom. toFrom their office, media center, or library. So there is no direct contact with teachers and students. Limiting the danger to school staff whose average age is 42. And not being dependent on the Internet infrastructure.
- Medical Supplies We need to maintain a minimum stockpile but more importantly maintain mothballed factories to produce PPE, Tests, and Vaccines. So we can ramp-up production of needed Safety Equipment and Test Kits during an emergency. In 30-days you can clear neighborhoods block by block with door-door testing. Cities can test sewers to detect hot-spots. If we need to extend all the ABOVE measures in 15 or 30-day increments.
- Vaccinations should be distributed with their PPE, and Medical Bracelets indicating the Name, Date, Location, Vaccine Serial Number#, Lot#, and Booster Date. Because early lots will be small as manufacturing ramps-up, it makes sense to vaccinate the smallest countries by population. This allows for managing the learning curve of the process and in the end, besides marking off a complete population, it frees up the personal and infrastructure (ie cold storage) for the next country. Leaving a smaller footprint of staff and/or equipment to deal with hotspots. This methodology would continue to states or provinces of larger nations. It is NOT, and NEVER was the publics' responsibility to get themselves vaccinated, it is the Federal Governments, with the help of Local Governments. Our responsibility is to follow the guidelines and do what we can to help the situation while helping the situation, and not jeopardizing it. Using DMV, IRS, Cell Phone, Census, and Voting Records the government can contact ALMOST everyone in the population and provide them with vaccination dates and locations via push SMS and mail... using outreach programs for completely off-grid individuals. This is also an option time to do a secondary Census campaign, as we should be vaccinating everyone.
SAVE THE ECONOMY: I would effectively freeze our economy in amber. No Business would go under, no one would lose their jobs or housing, and no one would be in more debt. People would still be able to eat, pay rent, mortgages, utilities, and income/property taxes. By saving the citizens, you save the economy as a whole. Ready to go back to 100% of where it was on day-1 when the emergency is over. So we can now focus on the Pandemic.
Then for each 30-day increment...
- Order a moratorium on Firings/Layoff, Evictions, and Utility Shutoffs.
- Pay everyone's paycheck. Rich, poor, and everyone in between. According to Google ALL Paycheck = $800 billion to $1trillion per month. Removing the payroll liability from ALL businesses (regardless if their workers can or cannot work from home or are deemed necessary) would save customers & more importantly their savings.
- Payments: Again according to Google 96% of payrolls are paid through a Payroll Service, So all the government would need to do is ask companies like ADP to just keep paying the last check or the average for the year on the same schedule.
- Then the only ones that would need to file for Relief are the Self-Employed... the 1099er. Filing with the IRS, they can cut checks or direct deposits in the monthly amounts claimed by those in the previous year.
- Business Loans: Most businesses, which usually already have a Line-of-Credit, could continue to draw funds up to their average with the Fed’s guarantee. Which, they might not even need, because they should now have no payroll expenses for the duration.
- Then the only ones who need to file for a loan are small self-funded businesses paying their own way. Which, the government could again guarantee.
- Suspensions of the Stock Exchanges (for stability) and Interest-Bearing Loans (to be tacked on to the end of the loan).
- Guarantee reimbursements to Local governments for the Homeless and Underground Workers which were not covered ABOVE.
Accountability
Then we can audit the benefits paid to determine what governments, companies, and individuals that could have afforded their emergency aid with the goal of covering their losses and not their profits over 5% to 10%. And everyone can delete the app and we can go on with our #Economy and our Lives… happily spending again.
- Double All Fines and Sentences for any crimes committed during any Emergency. The government's primary duty is to protect its citizens from those who would lie, cheat, or steal from, or otherwise harm economically or physically. Especially fraud, false cures, and/or price gouging.
- Violation of any Health Measures or failure to pay your liabilities (ie rent, mortgage, utilities) while receiving full benefits would cost you access to those benefits and privileges.