A disturbing criterion
As a downtown resident, property and business owner—as well as my wife and I being in the high-risk group—I am concerned about the mayor’s quote in the S-R this morning (“City launches poll for local opinions on stay-home order,” April 23); and since that provoked thoughts, here are mine for reopening our city.
It concerns me that she would use the number of beds for accommodation of new victims as a criterion for loosening a sound scientific strategy. Capacity in hospital beds or not, I don’t want to be the one using those beds, thank you.
It’s dangerous and a risk to me, my wife, my neighbors, and Spokane to open too soon. Let’s use science, not politics or public opinion polls. My criteria for opening: Reduction of new C-19 cases for 21 days (or level acceptable to health officials); Adequate testing capacity (rather than bed capacity) — enough to know who is infected — who is asymptomatic? Contact tracing to identify and safely manage those who might infect others — to infect you, or to infect me. Even though I’m a Coug, I would defer to the UofW modelers to maintain a scientifically reasonable degree of safety.
Let’s identify those jobs which require minimal public interaction. Use job-site management for employee safety. Consider judicious opening based on minimal risk of infecting others. We need to get our economy moving, but C-19 is out there which demands solid scientific thinking to guide us in that process.
Jim Kolva
Spokane