We should do that but the effects of that on the global economy scare me to be frank. Anyone who says that there's nothing to be worried about here simply hasn't thought through all the consequences we're facing.

It's going to hurt.

But if we don't do it, the thing spreads, and we're forced to do it anyway a few weeks later, like Italy.

Korea seems to be the best example of what has worked well, but I don't know a lot of the details. Seems like a good example to follow, but we're falling down in the US - we can't even test people.

What about an economic pause for 2 months? All rent/mortgage payments are paused, you only have to deal with the most critical costs (food, utilities) for a short period of time and then the economy resumes as best it can after the threat is gone? Of course, its not like it'll go away after just 2 months.

We told our tenants not to bother with next month's rent.

To be honest, I don't think it will be too bad. Just speculating here, but events like this only really hurt when they occur asymmetrically (think 9/11 or housing crisis)

Everyone is going to be rocked by this at basically the same time.

that won't work. It still just delays it. Everyone needs to just admit they -will- catch coronavirus with almost 100% certainty this year as it is quite virulent and likes to stick around for a few days on surfaces and a few weeks in humans. By limiting very large gatherings and observing handwashing/some isolation the best we can do is stretch it out over time so that the medical system isn't overly taxed.

Would it help contain the spread? This started with just a small number of people, and so even a small reintroduction would reset the clock two weeks later.

There are a lot of advantages to spreading it out, by reducing the peak strain on our health care resources and possibly letting a vaccine or drug come about. But a vaccine is likely months off at best, and we can't shut down everything until then. So a two-week quarantine might reduce the death toll, but I'm not sure it will dramatically reduce the number of people infected.

My personal feeling is that every day we delay mass-infection is another day that the medical community has to get a handle on this.

The initial wave of cases in a community is going to be a sucker-punch to the hospital staff. They are going to need time to regain their footing. If we can buy them that time, then we will all be much better off.

I don't know, to be honest. Seems better to stomp on it and then slowly relax and see how that goes?

I'd love to read an actual expert's advice on this. I'm just going by what I saw happen in Italy. By the time they shut things down hard, it was too late.