You determine the course of action, and you get it done.
By now, no one can claim they have not been warned. There are almost a million and a half infected (a vast undercount) and more than 300,000 dead in countries across the world. That is plenty of notice. But if the world does not act now, the Fall and winter will be a major disaster. If it is, it will have been an unnecessary one.
You can't just wish for coordinated global action. You have to create a mechanism that will deliver. That much-needed mechanism is a world government created at zip speed.
The first act of the world government would be to coordinate something like a 3-4 week stay at home order for the entire global population. Since testing can not be taken to everybody immediately, this will have to do for testing.
Essential workers would be exempt. Food workers are essential. Health workers are essential. There are some other categories.
Those 3-4 weeks would be time for relentless messaging. Engage people in conversation. Explain why this is being done.
Take food to every home free of cost. The world can afford this. At the same time, ramp up food production everywhere. Don't pay farmers subsidies to grow less. Instead buy their surplus for global distribution. This thing could go on for 6-12 months. The message that food is on the way will calm nerves. Not one person anywhere should go hungry.
Immediately all national armies have to get into formation to work like battalions in one global army to go erect tent hospitals in every village, every hamlet, every slum, every town.
During those 3-4 weeks, those with cough, cold and fever continue to stay home. The rest come out slowly to get back to work, but only after they have been trained in things like social distancing, mask-wearing, handwashing and the like. But even then, as soon as you start showing those early symptoms, you get to go back to your home isolation.
Any additional symptoms and you get to go to the tent hospitals.
Those 3-4 weeks are time to take drastic measures like possibly stopping the clock on finance. People should be extended rent, mortgage and bank loan vacations. Those could last three months, those could come back again for another 3-4 months during winter as necessary.
Those 3-4 weeks would be time to engage in manufacturing essentials like masks and tents on a war footing.
Polar bears hibernate during winter. It is between that and death.
Once the situation has been stabilized, the world should then turn its attention to try and turn the crisis into an opportunity.
Elon Musk is threatening to go to jail for the wrong company. Nobody is buying cars right now. The air has become clean without electric cars for now. He and others like him need to double down on satellite internet companies to connect every point on earth to the Internet.
Because we need contact tracing and we need it in a hurry. With massive testing and contact tracing that is fully scaled, we can go back to work even before we have a vaccine.
We need to give everyone on the planet a biometric ID. And a cheap solar phone. And the world government needs to enact a bill of rights that declares data collected around an individual is the property of that individual. Companies may monetize it but may only keep 30% of the money. 70 goes to the individual. This will pay for a Universal Basic Income.
All humanity will fast forward to a knowledge economy. Literacy is overrated. A lot of people prefer to learn orally. People can learn in audio in their first languages.
If we do this much, the global GDP will be growing at double digit rates in about a year or two, with or without a vaccine. But we do want a vaccine.
Facing The Pandemic Head On https://t.co/3NUwGtpkRS @SpeakerPelosi @SenSchumer @JoeBiden @BarackObama @OfficeGSBrown @AndrewYang @AOC @justicedems #CoronavirusOutbreak #CoronavirusVaccine #COVID19 #COVID #COVIDIOT #lockdown #Lockdown2 #Lockdown3 #pandemia #pandemic
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 14, 2020
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