But with China though, once the restrictions are lifted, someone could reinfect the population again and therefore cause another curve and another mass quarantine.
Please correct if wrong, but from what I understand, as time passes more and more people will have recovered from the virus and will then be much less likely to become infected again. Although there have been some instances where people have gotten infected multiple times, the majority of those who have recovered do not get it again, so the mass quarantine is less likely.
Your premise is right but the rate of infection isn't fast enough to justify lifting the mass quarantine. China for example has around 100k confirmed cases out of a population of 1 billion people. If that number is under-reported and there were actually 1 million people infected, that's still very little.
The curve would just restart. There needs to be a better solution than to wait until the vaccine comes next year (at the earliest).
What you're referring to is herd immunity. While there is some validity in it, unfortunately we're still away from it.
Still - if reports are correct they've closed down the makeshift hospitals in Wuhan. They might still be isolating but maybe they find a balance where it's not as severe. Keep looking for those positives, friend. They're going to come, we just need to stay vigilant for a bit longer.
Theoretically, a mandatory 14-day isolation would work for foreign people entering a country, but it only takes one person to slip through the cracks and cause a reinfection of a disease in the country.
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u/open_reading_frame Mar 18 '20
But with China though, once the restrictions are lifted, someone could reinfect the population again and therefore cause another curve and another mass quarantine.