So over the last week or so, people are debating whether we should practice "social distancing" for as long as it is needed in order to save lives or whether we should go back to work after Easter to save the US economy.
Please share your opinons on this topic. If you are not sure, here is a link arguing for saving the US economy. Here is a link arguing for saving lives. Here is a podcast discussing the issue: Saving Lives or Saving the Economy? Look for the March 26th podcast as it updates daily.
****Please vote in this poll about whether you think we will be back in school this year.
Replies
I think that we need to continue to practice social distancing. Before we can save the economy and get back to work, we have to slow the spread of the virus down so that doctors can continue to research to find a cure for the virus. With the new coronavirus relief bill that was passed/signed, I think this will help the economy enough so that we can continue to practice social distancing.
I agree tat the relief bill will pass but the US's will not do nearly as much as what other countries are doing. See the chart:
Yes I think we need to stick with the social distancing cause if we don't have people to run the economy cause they all got sick and died then we won't have any economy to come back to. I know I don't want to get sick with it and I don't want my family or friends to get sick wih it and possibly loose someone to it. My dad is a trucker and my mom works in retail and where my dad's not around alot of people my mom is. I just hope that people are doing the right things by staying home and if they are going out they are taking the right procautions and doing what's been asked of them, like washing hands and sanatize.
Great points! But as we see every day on TV, many are not stayng home.
I think we need to focus on saving lives. Of course it is a deep moral discussion, "so what if an older person dies" but the thing is, despite that, if the coronavirus infects more people, it could evolve like the Spanish Flu and cause tons of deaths to even YOUNGER HEALTHY PEOPLE. Some people with NO underlying health conditions and whom are HEALTHY IN GENERAL have died from the Coronavirus, so giving it the opportunity to evolve and possibly kill more than the 16-35 million expected deaths could be catastrophic. The WHO advised against this so I definitely think we should NOT go back to work after easter.
Great points Kyle. I agree with you but I'm not sure if that is what will happen.
I think that there really is no win in this situation. If we continue staying at home to social distance and save lives, the economy will crumble. However, if we do make the choice to continue keeping businesses and schools open to help the economy, we are doing nothing to prevent the spread of the virus, so it will infect thousands more people. No matter what option we choose, there is going to be a negative effect on our lives. I think that preserving healthy human lives shoudl rank above saving our economy. While I understand the large importance our economy has, it is not worth the hurt it will cause to so many human beings. However, the effects that the ecomony's plummet might bring are also a serious factor that needs to be addressed when making this decision.
Thanks for your response Ellie. You make great points. So what are some of the negative effects of the economy that might impact people persoanlly? Can you imagine if people don't work for three months? Whay impact will that have?
By the way, the US government is about to pass a huge stimulus package that will send people money. Watch this.
I think that we should continue to be careful about coronavirus and practice social distancing. However, lots of businesses could go out of business if we do this for too long. I think that we should do social distancing for a bit longer (a little after Easter) and if the coronavirus cases get lots smaller then we can stop closing everything down. I think that people would still have to be careful around one another if everything opened up again. I'm not sure that people would be able to be careful enough so that might not work. Overall, we should save lives of coronavirus victims but if the downfall of our economy will lead to more deaths (because of poverty) then it's not as worth it.
Thanks for your comments Macy. You bring up a great point--will more people run out of money and then die of other causes than if we just all went back to work? Some are saying that old people would be willing to die insread of letting the economy die. See video here.
Also, check the video I added to Ellie's comments as financial help to people/businesses is on the way.