So, another quick thought about everything opening back up (far too quickly, in my opinion.)

Imagine you work in a restaurant:

Your shift starts; you're all masked up and gloved up, and you do your routine temperature checks.

One of your coworkers has a fever.

It's over 100.4°F, the CDC-recommended limit for those interacting with the public.

They haven't been running around outside or anything; they've just been polishing glasses. They feel fine.

What do you do?

The guidelines laid out state that this person should (a) be sent home and (b) not allowed back for several days after their symptoms first showed.

So, sure, we should send them home. But:

What if (a) this person hasn't been able to receive unemployment for the past 3-4 months? The system failed them, and they're really hurting for funds. Now they can't make *any* money for at least a week.

Or:

What if (b) you're absolutely short-staffed and completely unable to find another person to step in at the last minute? Would you try to run the place with a lower-than-optimal staff?

Running on lower than optimal staff will almost certainly mean an inability to sanitize bathrooms, door handles, and surfaces hourly (the recommended amount.) It means a lot of things will fall through the cracks, as hard as you try.

There are a million factors; I've literally typed out and erased about twelve other big factors that this relatively small situation brings about.

Bottom line: most restaurants would just keep that worker on. Would tell them to tough it out, wear a mask. Cross their fingers.

The government is asking everyday, garden-variety citizens to make heavy epidemiological decisions on a daily basis.

I don't think I have to tell you why that's bad.