Very true when the author says:

"The situations in a number of COVID-19-hit countries - such as Italy and the USA - are excellent examples of what can happen if lockdown is delayed.

...The US, too, is heading in the same direction, with the country's number of infected patients exceeding both China and Italy, while the death toll is catching up as well. Clearly, the Italian and American governments have wasted plenty of time before imposing their lockdowns, allowing the virus to spread throughout a large portion of the population."

But beware, doubting Trump's idiotic, expert advice opposed, egotistical, handling of the

COVID threat to America IS TO OFFEND SO MANY OLO COMMENTERS WHO WORSHIP TRUMP.

So easy for those who's livelihood & wellbeing is not endangered, but perhaps even enhanced, by the coronavirus to pontificate on these things. I wonder if all taxpayer funded income was withdrawn for the time of any lock down, if they would still be so gung-ho with such advice?

just another of the numerous conflicting 'expert' opinions. Starting to look more and more like gw modelling.

To brighten up the day of OLO-pudlians reading this article, here's a little poem I wrote:

With apologies to a pretty good band :) *

When we find ourselves in times of COVID
Months of hopefulness decree
There will be a vaccine
Let it be.

And in lonely hours of darkness typing
Listening to the crash of sea
Good Friday comes tomorrow
Let it be

Let it be, let it be.
Let it be, yeah let it be.
Whisper joys pre-COVID
Let it be

* Very much inspired by the Beatles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_impact_of_the_Beatles – who perform it here http://youtu.be/7P6X3IWLECY

Yup! But particularly when we don't yet have a vaccine for SARS1!

That even a mild infection can result in hospitalisation!

That it can live for a week or longer on the inside of a once used, then disposed of, surgical mask!

Transmission may not be limited to other humans, but our furry feline friends, given they can catch it and don't give even lip service to social distancing but rub themselves against each other and you! Go out and honeymoon with their feral feline friends, who may have alsorts? And attend to all personal hygiene with their tongue! Never ever worry about toilet tissue!

Unless we get an effective vaccine or enough natural immunity to make collecting and dispensing antibody loaded plasma?

There could be a second wave and as with the Spanish flu, a third and a fourth?

Agree with the Author, the time to get on top of this pandemic, was before it got here and by closing the borders and requiring all incoming travellers, our and others, to be quarantined in offshore quarantine for up to a month and not allowed out if positive, until they test negative for the last two weeks of a month of enforced isolation.

Here at home the economic outcomes of a total shut down for two weeks less severe than what is now our immediate economic future!

But would have needed to be enforced with armed guards!

Would've been very, very unpopular and probably cost the government the next election and our patently indifferent, chief medical officer his preferred herd immunity?

Now instead of an immediate lockdown and quarantines? We have the biggest spend by our government in our history!

Does anyone believe we can sill keep negative gear and capital gains subsidies, and super Super!? While we have this crippling debt around our taxpayer's necks? And how hard is going to be given a lengthy recession or even, God help us, a depression, to rip back jobseeker? Or index pensions?

Bet your bottom dollar, parliamentary salaries won't be frozen nor their ultra generous retirement benefits or entitlements?
Alan B.

Footnote: Given covid-19 can live on the inside of a disused and tossed surgical mask for a week or more, How safe is much handled, paper money or polymer banknotes?

Rubber gloves only protect the wearer and can easily transfer the virus from one object or product to any other! Hands that are frequently sanitised with alcohol-based (75%) sanitizers are safer than gloves for the consumer!

So, don't be an angry old man if the shopping assistant is not wearing gloves? Put a pair on to unpack and wipe everything with a sanitising wipe and wash all fresh produce, before refrigerating. If you don't have chlorinated town water? Add a few teaspoons of bleach to the wash water.

Take care and stay safe. AT HOME!
Alan B.