I think the point, or the gamble, as you will, is that the disease will get almost everyone in due time until transmission rates are brought down to 1:1 levels like the Flu.

Besides, yes, these are the consequences of severe pneumonia for many people. But at the same time, we've hundreds of thousands of young people smoking and vaping to the same effect. And 0.05% to 0.1% in that age bracket are dying yearly regardless, of various causes. So the cost isn't that different from the risks of an average year of life.

True, it sucks. No one asked for this, to have to pay the price, and I'm reminded of this passage from the Lord of the Rings:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Hmm lock away all the 70+ for 4 months. Is that feasible. What about the 60-70 that are also at risk and all those with pre-existing conditions. Who is going to take care of all the 70+ in retirement homes and those that need help daily. Who is going to bring them decontaminated food etc.

They are deeply worried that some older people will simply die at home from neglect, after they are quarantined, so want to start the quarantine as late as possible - some time within the next five to 20 days.

Wacky idea, and looking at Italy it's not just 70+ that need the ICU...

So 2 days ago my lrft lung was hurting and i was having trouble breathing but i usually have issues with this lung so i didn't care.
But now i have a sore throat and dry cough. Should i be worried?

I didn't know AJ only promoted conspiracy theories. Thank goodness for that headline. I almost thought he also promoted nutritional supplements as well among other things. Wait are those bad too?

I personally am helping to fight the virus, by remaining out of public as much as possible. Does that guarantee I won't contract and spread it, and won't perish because of it? If those things were to happen, was I ever really helping to fight the virus? Does chemo help fight cancer? If it doesn't work, or there's a recurrence, is it ok to say it fights cancer? Does a healthier person have a better chance at fighting off Covid?

What exactly is the situation vis-a-vis the virus itself in Ireland? Did the number of additional daily transmissions start to decrease before the rush to grocery stores and supermarkets ended? Does Ireland have the transmission rate in much better control than the United States where it's just tripled in the last week?

Avoiding people from coming up behind one in a place as crowded as work was on Friday is tough. I shall do my best at defensive walking, but it's also not like I try to get hit.

Concerning the idea of limiting the number of a given item that people can purchase, yeah, the store already did that vis-a-vis the top-selling items like water and toilet paper (e.g. no more than four water cases per customer) and we ran out anyway because we had that many customers. There's nothing that can stop this outside of maybe some truly epic mark-ups, like raising the price of everything by over 1,000% maybe to slow down people's rate of buy. I can't imagine anything short of drastic and highly unpopular steps like that being effective.

You're right about the Chinese example though, they've done a pretty good job of containing the spread of coronavirus and there are lots of lessons that we SHOULD be learning from their experience here that we simply don't seem to want to. Here's an obvious for-example: the CDC guidelines here in the U.S. suggesting that people who believe they have coronavirus should quarantine themselves at home with family is a strategy that we should already know, based on the Chinese experience, doesn't work because 75% of their transmissions were between family members! The government there found it much more effective to temporarily take the sick away from their families and into a more actual isolation. Harsh, but it worked. Just as an obvious example. Our current CDC guidelines are asinine and reflect the attitude of an administration that just simply doesn't care.

I would also highlight the success story of South Korea, which I've found to be even more remarkable because they left their borders open and everything and have still managed to contain the virus spread with striking efficacy.

The single most important step to be taking is one that we should've taken weeks ago, which is widely testing the population to get a sense of where and how widespread the problem is. Without that, we're fighting it blind and inevitably falling way behind the curve. Our response so far has been slower and worse than Iran's, slower and worse even than Italy's, and we're going to have a more severe problem than those countries wind up with in the end as a result.

Yeah his approach makes no sense. There has been cases in schools and they've only closed these individual schools for a day.

Other states have set schools up as day care centers and food centers or got rid of mandatory attendance.  The Governor has already dropped the 180 school days requirement so De Blasio can close it for awhile if he decides to.

It's self-reinforcing at this point. Everyone sees everyone else emptying out the stores and worries there won't be anything left by their next shopping trip, so maybe they too should go ahead and stock up while there's still stuff on the shelf...and so, in this way, the panic becomes a vicious cycle where everyone responds to everyone else's panic endlessly.