Protesting the Shutdown

I understand why people are protesting local and state governments over the shutdown, but I don't agree.  At least I don't agree yet.  People want to go back to work and to life in general.  That is fair and reasonable.  But the reason for the shutdown was to flatten the curve of the virus and ram up hospitals so they wouldn't get overrun.  And we have flatten the curve, but we aren't on the other side yet.  And hospitals are in a much better position to treat people, but we need to make sure the supply chain for medical equipment and medicine is ready.

We need to get on the other side of the curve now and that will take a couple more weeks for most states and cities.  I think many states like Indiana can mostly reopen by May.  By waiting a couple more weeks it will give us a cushion for the up tick in cases that will occur when we end the shutdown.  President Trump has given us a good outline with 3 phases to reopening our economy.  I think if we take the next 2 weeks to get into place the plan for phase 1 will can start the reopening around May 1 for most states.  Some states and cities like New Jersey and New York City might need a little longer.

Protesting now is too soon.  If we continue social distancing and the numbers continue to improve, then in a couple weeks if states like Indiana refuse to open up we might need to start protesting and just reopen on our own.  We are a free people, but we also have to be smart to defeat this invisible enemy.  We will not ever get to a point where no one will die from this virus, but we can get to a point that makes the mortality rate of the virus more in line with other viruses until we get a vaccine.  We need to try to all work together to get through this and protesting right now isn't helpful.