Maybe it's being upvoted because it rings true to a lot of people, and raises a prospect not being talked about much elsewhere. Personally I think it glosses over potentially the worst of what's to come: next winter.

I don't take much solace in a surveillance state being a way out of this either, besides, what use is contact tracing for those commuting on crowded underground trains every day?

It's likely that cloth masks reduce transmission in situations like trains (by stopping infectious people from blowing droplets everywhere).

Contact tracing works by pulling sick people out of circulation. So when you stop a sick person from getting on the train, you eliminate the potential infections that would have come with their journey.

This polemic from Charlie Stross could be justified if,

(1) You require competent coordination from federal government to coordinate effective response.

(2) Jared Kusher would not be one of the greatest minds of his generation. It's incomprehensible that person who is in charge of Middle East peace can't fix simple pandemic.

Australia and New Zealand are well ahead on an exit path and following different strategies (NZ - eradication & Aus some form of containment) so expect the US and UK to be watching closely.

The data from the Roosevelt will probably put a damper on the idea of eradication in Australia and testing even 10% of the population in a small time frame is just not possible.

I've found it full of snark and completely ignoring the fact that aside the vaccines, there's plenty of pharmacological progress going on (again: people seem to forget about the drugs entirely). Also, the more we learn about this disease, the better the clinical management will be.

There are better arguments to be had, and the story linked isn't one of them.

Well, there is a mention of miracle medicine at the end.