[Goose]

I've concluded as long as everyone wears masks, limits their time indoors with others, and washes/sanitizes hands, we can manage virus without too many business closures.

I have concluded this is a definite maybe. I am not sure where one can gather evidence that you are correct, because I am not of the opinion that the "everyone" condition has been met anywhere. I think at best you would have to substitute "enough people" for everyone, and then what is enough? I do think that we are doing lots of separate, uncontrolled experiments nationwide right now, and we will eventually settle into some condition where the most businesses possible are open for the compliance levels that we can get. At that point, you can decide if it is "too many" businesses being closed, but it won't matter, because that's what you get.

The population will adjust their behavior in response basically to the death rate. Unfortunately, the delay in the death rate is high enough that the adjustment can be very unstable. The death rate that the public at large is willing to absorb may be much higher that most of us on this board are willing to accept, but that is what will control the outcome. It will probably mean high risk people have to be very careful, and younger, healthier people do not (and will not). We are seeing this already, and it will continue to "adjust".

[Goose]

I've concluded as long as everyone wears masks, limits their time indoors with others, and washes/sanitizes hands, we can manage virus without too many business closures.

I have concluded this is a definite maybe. I am not sure where one can gather evidence that you are correct, because I am not of the opinion that the "everyone" condition has been met anywhere. I think at best you would have to substitute "enough people" for everyone, and then what is enough? I do think that we are doing lots of separate, uncontrolled experiments nationwide right now, and we will eventually settle into some condition where the most businesses possible are open for the compliance levels that we can get. At that point, you can decide if it is "too many" businesses being closed, but it won't matter, because that's what you get.

The population will adjust their behavior in response basically to the death rate. Unfortunately, the delay in the death rate is high enough that the adjustment can be very unstable. The death rate that the public at large is willing to absorb may be much higher that most of us on this board are willing to accept, but that is what will control the outcome. It will probably mean high risk people have to be very careful, and younger, healthier people do not (and will not). We are seeing this already, and it will continue to "adjust".