What milestones do you think should be achieved before the social distancing, large gathering and facemask restrictions are eliminated? The timeframe for the options would be 6 months, if you think it should be something else, please indicate that. I didn't give specific numbers, feel free to add your suggestions here.

I think there should be under a certain (low) rate per a period of time and then that rate should have to be sustained for a period of time.

I had a hard time voting.

I originally chose the effective vaccine and then also added "All of these." That probably doesn't make any sense, but I'm uncertain because so much is unknown.

I think the rate of infection is very important. ie... how many people per hundred or thousand test positive. This gives us a strong indicator of how aggressively the virus is spreading.

The CDC laid out a pretty good plan earlier but it was ignored. Not saying it was perfect but gave a guideline.

Page 5 of this report spells it out quite nicely.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nco...19-Response.pdf

Deaths can be quite misleading. While it is the most alarming statistic, a rise in deaths occurs well after the spread of the virus increases. By the time you start seeing the death count rise, the infection spread has gone up a month or more before that time.

It's more like looking in your rear view mirror at what you've already passed by.

Considering the research coming out on long-term health effects from covid, even if you weren't hospitalized, I'd say it should be tied to case-rate/R0.

Ideally I'd say the R0 would be at less than 0.5 for a 14 day period, but this may be impossible in our country due to the way things currently operate.

I'd like to see better contract tracing, such as what happens in South Korea and Taiwan, but I've heard we have nowhere near the capacity to do what happens over there. SARS trained them well a decade prior after their outbreaks.

A vaccine is ideal but who knows if these will work. I'm trying to stay optimistic, but the history on coronaviruses on vaccines hasn't been promising. There's also the issue of trying to bypass the FDA to test unproven vaccines, too.

Can't stop or pause life, yet we can't negatively impact the future quality of life or ourselves through the spread of covid-19.

I twice keep seeing this Chevy Comercial with a cute little dog, black haired pug on a bumper as I consider this question.
It reminds me to say, I think the shutdowners would find a way to take away "your little dog too", like the witch in "the wizard of oz", if they could.
(by the way, I personally think petting dogs is probably a no-no, personally, if I "really" want to avoid this virus, only simple speculation would make me think it's "probably" a major carrier of a surface transferred microbe sized invisible thing and should be avoided, especially because we don't know where that dogs


The answer to the question, has progressed, has changed.
While I was not on the side of shutting down in person restaurant eating, bars, or hair salons at any point,

Some time ago I "was" in agreement to shutting down large crowds at football games and type gatherings, but I sort of thought there should be a way, with separation, to keep crowds together.

After seeing masks', and plexiglass' results, I think with distancing, only size of a venue should limit the size of a crowd.

New Cases, and number of deaths, have very little influence on my thinking, about policy which I've stated consistently from the start.

After rereading the question, I don't think social distancing and masks should be abandoned until something different happens, and that is a passage of time.

Even if they get a vaccine, and even though I think crowds can be any size after what we've seen to this point,


Wait until February at the earliest to stop social distancing and masks.

Crowds? Crowds should be at sporting events Now!

But the poll choice is other. Other being passage of 6 months of diminishing not increasing effects of this on spreading.

And I come to that 6 month time because from the beginning I feel we have to consider this the 100 year pandemic, it was going to take at least a year to get over from the start

So in one sentence you state that bars, restaurants, and hair salons shouldn’t have ever been shut down. Then a few lines later you advocate for mask wearing and social distancing.
So how does one go into an enclosed bar or restaurant and not remove your mask to eat and drink, yet stay safe? What’s the likelihood of a boozed up bar patron maintaining social distancing? You do understand that sitting in a restaurant eating without a mask for an hour or so is one of the more ‘dangerous’ things you can do right now, right? You do understand that this is an airborne virus and sharing air while you get your food and drink on is not a safe practice, right?
As to hair salons, barber shops... I’d only go with an N95 on. Preferably with my barber in one too. I’ve had the same girl cut my hair for the past 14 years. I’ve not seen her since February. I wish her well but my clippers have done a decent job and kept me from risking my, and her, health... and saved me money along the way.
At this point I’m done with enclosed public spaces. As I have been since March. At least those that would require not wearing a mask... aka food establishments. I don’t understand the draw to want to sit in a bar/restaurant and share air. A beer is a beer. Sit out your back deck and enjoy one. Take out food is just as tasty and a heck of a lot safer in today’s world. If it’s about being social... you can do that outside... from a distance... with masks.

That's easy. Go to a local watering hole during the day. Counting the owner (who is usually the only one working) there are usually 3 to 5 of us in there including myself, and the owner. With a 30 seat bar we are all sitting AT LEAST 6 feet away from each other. In some cases we are 15 to 20 feet apart.

There is no single metric, really, but just as we did with re-opening, you do it in phases and watch the numbers.

Start by returning to masks being optional, then wait a few weeks.

If the numbers remain mostly stable or even decline, you accelerate and relax the gathering size restrictions, and then watch the numbers.

Wash, rinse, repeat.
Forget "flatten the curve" (let's face it, the gov't sure has abandoned that rhetoric), it's now "feather the throttle".

Not everyone can day drink in an empty bar. Most people seek out the bar for boozing it up shoulder to shoulder with others. The social lubricant that is alcohol leads to poor judgement and sloppy self awareness of personal space.
You being a regular at the local pub during work hours is not the typical situation in which most people booze it up.
FYI... Don’t let the ‘over 6 feet apart’ seating lull you into a false sense of security. The AC unit is seeing to it you’re sharing air with everyone in that bar.
As I’ve said, I’m avoiding indoor spaces. As we all should be.
Good luck out there.
Be safe.

I vote none of the above. 2021 or bust, no masks on 1/1/2021.

This makes me happy.

HAPPY
YOU
HAVE
NO
SAY
IN
THE
MATTER!

Oh I have all the say in the world because myself wearing a mask, well that is something that's in my control.

Continue being a sheep.

I just find it odd that you put a date on it rather than data of how we're actually doing against the virus.

So let me pose this to you. Many experts say that things will get worse when the weather gets colder much like the flu.

So if things get worse than they are now, or certainly not any better than they are now, do you stick with that date or do you change the date depending on the circumstances?

I figure you're right. I can't count on each individual person to take the personal responsibility, to staty 6 feet apart from others, on their own accord.

Just like I can't expect every person in the world is going to be responsible enough to not smoke meth, or to avoid other irresponsible things;

but at this point, spreading of the virus between two people or a small group halfway across the city is really moot in my opinion,

And that is because the virus has reached all over,
it's gone all the way across the world and halfway back again.

Eventually shut downs become like pushing an already lit button to call the elevator,
people are either going to stay 6 feet apart and wear a mask, or they are not.

I still think a lot of the virus spread which has gone without blame has been inside family units where the nuclear family who lives together hasn't been social distancing.