# Are you willing to go broke to maintain the present lockdown? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 23, 2020, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471 "2020-04-23T22:27:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/281 "2020-04-29T00:41:41Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The same way it plays out every single day in the US. It’s routine to move patients to other hospitals. Routine. Help me out here: how routine is it for patients with an airborne disease with a relatively high mortality rate to be transferred across state lines? You suggested that Gigo took a quote out of context. I’m guessing that context matters to you. So put what you said in context. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/282 "2020-04-29T00:47:57Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > In case you haven’t noticed, nothing about the healthcare system is operating in a routine manner right now. Patient load is many times the routine level. > > And I notice you sidestepped the choice of who gets to choose which patients get relocated where. NYC is going to offload their overflow into MS or AL or NB, and those states are simply going to accept them in a spirit of goodwill? This cuts against everything we’ve seen about the Hunger Games style of interstate resource allocation. I’m not sure why you’re using far away states as a place to transport patients. But we’ve been juggling supplies around between states so your movie reference makes even less sense. As an aside my governor [worked with the FDA](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/29/coronavirus-fda-eases-restrictions-mask-sterilization-technology/2936670001/) to get a company’s mask sterilization system approved and one of the machines was sent to NYC. > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > You can’t transport a patient to a facility that won’t accept them. The [Governor of New York mandated](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coronavirus-spreads-new-york-nursing-home-forced-take-recovering-patients-n1191811) that nursing homes take these patients. He can just as easily mandate that Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse hospitals take patients without ever involving Federal intervention. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/283 "2020-04-29T00:48:40Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > No, you picked a quote that served your needs instead of thinking about it. NYC is not located on the moon. Patients can be transported to outlying hospitals. We do it all the time. We didn’t begin to tap into the ICU reserves in the US. :dubious: And again, you are ignoring timelines, early on it was not as great as you picture it. > **[13 Deaths in a Day: An ‘Apocalyptic’ Coronavirus Surge at an N.Y.C. Hospital...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-hospitals.html)** > > Hospitals in the city are facing the kind of harrowing increases in cases that overwhelmed health care systems in China and Italy. > [@](#): > > Elmhurst, a 545-bed public hospital in Queens, has begun transferring patients not suffering from coronavirus to other hospitals as it moves toward becoming dedicated entirely to the outbreak. Doctors and nurses have struggled to make do with a few dozen ventilators. Calls over a loudspeaker of “Team 700,” the code for when a patient is on the verge of death, come several times a shift. Some have died inside the emergency room while waiting for a bed. > [@](#): > > Workers at several hospitals, including the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, said employees such as obstetrician-gynecologists and radiologists have been called to work in emergency wards. > > At a branch of the Montefiore Medical Center, also in the Bronx, there have been one or two coronavirus-related deaths a day, or more, said Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, a nurse. There are not always enough gurneys, so some patients sit in chairs. One patient on Sunday had been without a bed for 36 hours, she said. > > At the Mount Sinai Health System, some hospital workers in Manhattan have posted photos on social media showing nurses using trash bags as protective gear. A system spokesman said she was not aware of that happening and noted the nurses had other gear below the bags. “The safety of our staff and patients has never been of greater importance and we are taking every precaution possible to protect everyone,” she said. > [@](#): > > In the weeks after, the emergency room began filling up, with more than 200 people at times. Every chair in the waiting room was usually taken. Patients came in faster than the hospital could add beds; earlier this week, 60 coronavirus patients had been admitted but were still in the emergency room. One man waited almost 60 hours for a bed last week, a doctor said. > > The patients coming in now are sicker than before because they were advised to try to recover at home, doctors said. > > Like other hospitals, Elmhurst has come perilously close to running out of ventilators several times; other hospitals have replenished its supply. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/284 "2020-04-29T01:04:30Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Help me out here: how routine is it for patients with an airborne disease with a relatively high mortality rate to be transferred across state lines? the same as it is for any person with a serious disease to be transported to a hospital that specializes in that disease. that’s without any kind of national emergency behind the problem. Imagine if there was a pandemic and resources were shifted to where they were needed. You know, like we’re doing now. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/285 "2020-04-29T01:06:12Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > :dubious: > > And again, you are ignoring timelines, early on it was not as great as you picture it. > > [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-hospitals.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-hospitals.html) Wouldn’t have to wait 60 hrs for a bed if the patient was transported to another hospital. which would have taken a couple of hours. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/286 "2020-04-29T01:46:02Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Wouldn’t have to wait 60 hrs for a bed if the patient was transported to another hospital. which would have taken a couple of hours. Again, that did not happen then, AFAIK a lot of the ambulances were already used at capacity for corona and other issues, the reality is that even on one very well-prepared place the system was overwhelmed and many were not transported and died. Things got much better of course, but the point stands, there are many reasons why more people do die when the curve is not flattened and a big surge comes in, health workers get it too, one reason why that was not worse was thanks to the lockdown. Now if other items like masks, testing and contact tracing are deployed in large numbers then I do think that we can reopen with caution so as to avoid another surge in other locations of the USA that have even less capacity in their hospitals. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/287 "2020-04-29T02:03:01Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > the same as it is for any person with a serious disease to be transported to a hospital that specializes in that disease. I don’t believe you. Wanna show your evidence that, again, patients with high mortality airborne diseases are transported the same “for any person with a serious disease”? Because I think you wrote that without evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/288 "2020-04-29T02:17:23Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Again, that did not happen then, AFAIK a lot of the ambulances were already used at capacity for corona and other issues, the reality is that even on one very well-prepared place the system was overwhelmed and many were not transported and died. > > Things got much better of course, but the point stands, there are many reasons why more people do die when the curve is not flattened and a big surge comes in, health workers get it too, one reason why that was not worse was thanks to the lockdown. Now if other items like masks, testing and contact tracing are deployed in large numbers then I do think that we can reopen with caution so as to avoid another surge in other locations of the USA that have even less capacity in their hospitals. The system became overloaded because they let it get overloaded. The time to do something about it is not when the hospital is at 90% and there is a likelihood it will go 120%. and regardless of a single day overload we have the capacity to move people quickly. We have a multi-layer private system in place to move patients. We have a large scale military system in place to move patients. We have a volunteer system in place to move patients. This is not a secret doomsday plan hidden in the bowls of Cheyenne Mountain. It’s a well known system that hospitals can avail themselves of either through private charter or coordination with Federal assets. You saw this with the 2 ships called up for support. we have the same thing with air support. Every time there’s a major disaster requiring outside help the US engages those assets. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/289 "2020-04-29T02:25:28Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The system became overloaded because they let it get overloaded. The time to do something about it is not when the hospital is at 90% and there is a likelihood it will go 120%. Well, that is a different discussion then, the reality is that it was. > [@Magiver](#): > > and regardless of a single day overload Quote for that? I did not said that. > [@Magiver](#): > > we have the capacity to move people quickly. Yes, we also have the capacity to get humans to the moon again, but it will not happen tomorrow. > [@Magiver](#): > > We have a multi-layer private system in place to move patients. We have a large scale military system in place to move patients. We have a volunteer system in place to move patients. This is not a secret doomsday plan hidden in the bowls of Cheyenne Mountain. It’s a well known system that hospitals can avail themselves of either through private charter or coordination with Federal assets. You saw this with the 2 ships called up for support. IIRC I even pointed to you in a different thread that the ships came late. Good for the help then, but late. > [@Magiver](#): > > we have the same thing with air support. Every time there’s a major disaster requiring outside help the US engages those assets. The point then stands, because that did not happen early on. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/290 "2020-04-29T02:28:00Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I don’t believe you. Wanna show your evidence that, again, patients with high mortality airborne diseases are transported the same “for any person with a serious disease”? > > Because I think you wrote that without evidence. You’ve never seen a transport helicopter before? These move patients, equipment and medical personnel as needed. The same applies to fixed wing aircraft. And the logical sequence of transport to free up bed space is to move the least endangered first. But, if you think waiting in an emergency room for 60 hrs as GIGObuster cited is a good plan then state your reasoning. My position is pretty clear. Use the assets available to move people as needed to surrounding hospitals. It’s a pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/291 "2020-04-29T02:31:55Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Wouldn’t have to wait 60 hrs for a bed if the patient was transported to another hospital. which would have taken a couple of hours. Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse are way more than a couple of hours from New York City - Syracuse (the closest) is 250 miles, Rochester 330, and Buffalo 375. Yes, you could transport patients. You’d need to send an ambulance on a 10-16 hour round trip, though. You’d need a driver and at least one person to assist the patient. If they’re sick enough to be hospitalized the need for ventilation might develop during the trip. So you’d need to bring a ventilator and all the associated supplies, Then you’d need to get the ambulance, nurse and driver back to New York City. For the furthest destinations this might mean an overnight stay. So you’ve taken an ambulance, a driver,a nurse and a ventilator-all valuable resources- out of service for a full day at minimum ( two days to some of your proposed destinations) in order to transport one patient. Yes, patients are often moved - sometimes long distances - to a place where they can get better treatment, usually specialized care. Usually those transports happen in opposite direction - they are moving patients from small rural hospitals to facilities in a larger city. But the idea that it’s logistically feasible you move dozens or even hundreds of patients long distances during a health emergency doesn’t hold up to logical scrutiny. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/292 "2020-04-29T02:31:59Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > IIRC I even pointed to you in a different thread that the ships came late. Good for the help then, but late. the ships were a waste of money. At best they were to handle a worst case scenario. They were never a timely intervention and the cost of sending them could have been used to transport patients to existing hospitals. They were NOT sent for virus patients. they were sent for non-virus patients and had to be reconfigured to handle those patients once they got there. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/293 "2020-04-29T02:33:19Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > But, if you think waiting in an emergency room for 60 hrs as GIGObuster cited is a good plan then state your reasoning. Read it again. That is what people at the hospital reported. Of course since it showed that there were not enough beds, then it is therefore not conductive to the narrative. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/294 "2020-04-29T02:34:44Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse are way more than a couple of hours from New York City - Syracuse (the closest) is 250 miles, Rochester 330, and Buffalo 375. > > Yes, you could transport patients. You’d need to send an ambulance on a 10-16 hour round trip, though. for those distances you would use aircraft. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/295 "2020-04-29T02:39:43Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Read it again. That is what people at the hospital reported. Of course since it showed that there were not enough beds, then it is therefore not conductive to the narrative. It’s precisely related to the narrative. NYC could have airlifted a substantial number of patients to other hospitals starting with those who were best suited to travel. The alternative is a lack of appropriate care without sufficient ICU beds. Again, this is NOT an unusual scenario. We transport critical care patients all the time because another hospital is better equipped to handle it ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/296 "2020-04-29T02:49:37Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > It’s precisely related to the narrative. It is a narrative from fantasy island, simply because it did not happen when the system got very overwhelmed for a time. Unfortunately you can’t turn back time. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/297 "2020-04-29T03:39:01Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > You’ve never seen a transport helicopter before? These move patients, equipment and medical personnel as needed. > > The same applies to fixed wing aircraft. > > And the logical sequence of transport to free up bed space is to move the least endangered first. > > But, if you think waiting in an emergency room for 60 hrs as GIGObuster cited is a good plan then state your reasoning. > > My position is pretty clear. Use the assets available to move people as needed to surrounding hospitals. It’s a pandemic. Well that was a whole bunch of non sequitur. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but you’ve offered zero evidence to support your claim, so I’m gonna dismiss it now. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/298 "2020-04-29T04:54:14Z")
> [@cmosdes](#): > > The spike in deaths due to unemployment is not likely to come. It is likely to be a long, drawn out event because of a lack of insurance for people in the US. It probably won’t show up on a graph like you are asking for. The reason people die from lack of health insurance is because they don’t have access to preventive care, and by the time they find out something is wrong, it’s too late to treat it. Right now, no one has access to preventive care because it wouldn’t make sense for a healthy person to go for a check up and get a life-threatening illness. Unemployed people right now do have access to health insurance. They have COBRA, subsidized health insurance under the ACA and Medicaid if their State offers it. When I last posted that, you only addressed the part about COBRA being too expensive, but with the increased amount of unemployment money, people can either choose to pay for COBRA or get a policy under ACA or get Medicaid if their State has it. Under every one of those scenarios, preventive care is covered. Even without health insurance, hospitals are required to treat people for life threatening illnesses which is pretty much the only thing hospitals are treating for now anyway. Lack of health insurance is not the biggest killer during a pandemic. Looking at the early signs of how the lifting of the lockdowns is working, I looked at what’s happening in Georgia. According to [one model](https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/health/georgia-coronavirus-death-projections/index.html), Georgia’s deaths will double over the summer with relaxed social distancing. Only about [a dozen restaurants decided to reopen](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/04/27/georgia-restaurants-opened-their-doors-today---heres-how-it-went/). > [@](#): > > The majority of restaurants did not reopen but a few—including Waffle House’s 330 chain restaurants and more than twelve other restaurants in the Atlanta metro area—did, despite backlash from health officials and users online; “This is a really bad idea—I hope you are paying your workers extra and protect them,” said one user in response to a post on Instagram from Rocky Mountain Pizza announcing their reopening. 50 owners of 120 restaurants [did not open](https://www.newsweek.com/restaurant-owners-refuse-reopen-georgia-1500620). > [@](#): > > But a group of restaurant owners in Atlanta and Savannah, who together operate more than 120 restaurants, have said they have no plans to reopen right now. > . . . > “We agree that it’s in the best interest of our employees, our guest, our community, and our industry to keep our dining room closed at this time,” the statement said. The Mayor of Atlanta is [calling on people to stay home](https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/494043-atlanta-mayor-urges-residents-to-stay-at-home-as-governor-reopens-state) despite the Governor lifting the shut down. [A poll](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/04/22/americans-overwhelmingly-support-stay-at-home-restrictions-new-poll-finds/#7396e7bd2e12) taken between April 16-20 shows that 87% of Americans support a shut down with some wanting stricter controls. > [@](#): > > The poll, conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in a survey of 1,057 adults from April 16-20, found only 12% of Americans say the measures where they live go too far, while 26% of people say the restrictions don’t go far enough and a majority, 61%, argue the directives from officials are about right. It’s still early days. But the start doesn’t look that promising for the economy to go roaring back with the possibility of the doubling of deaths in Georgia from the coronavirus. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/299 "2020-04-29T11:48:14Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > It’s precisely related to the narrative. NYC could have airlifted a substantial number of patients to other hospitals starting with those who were best suited to travel. The airlift capacity does not exist to have a massive airlift on the scale you’re talking about. You’ll need to show a cite that the capacity does exist. Other hospitals wouldn’t have accepted the patients, and nobody had the authority to do so. You will need to show a cite showing who can command a governor or hospital administrator to accept overflow patients from another state. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471/300 "2020-04-29T11:58:41Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#): > > “We agree that it’s in the best interest of our employees, our guest, our community, and our industry to keep our dining room closed at this time,” the statement said. That lofty-minded sentiment may be true. I wish they would speak more to the reality of “I can’t open my dining room because it loses money if I can’t cram it with people.” Governors are begging businesses to operate at a loss, and/or put their employees at health risk just so that Republicans can claim a political victory of “opening the economy.” [Trump is using the DPA to keep meat packing plants open](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/28/trump-to-order-meat-plants-to-stay-open-215555) as well, relieving them of liability if someone gets sick. It’s downright ghoulish. I’m not one of those lefties who fantasizes about general strikes, but I think it’s time for essential workers to walk off the job. They’re entitled to more pay for the hazard they’re taking on. It would be very interesting to see if Republicans are ready to violate the 13th amendment to “open the economy”. And for all the pearl-clutching about the suffering from a closed economy, there’s a really simple way to fix this: send more checks. Send bigger checks. But send them directly to consumers and prohibit anyone else from confiscating them. Interest rates are near zero, this is the perfect time for the government to take on debt. This is exactly the reason that debt exists. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-willing-to-go-broke-to-maintain-the-present-lockdown/852471.md?page=16)