I think this prescription by Scott Gottlieb and Lauren Silvis in an op-ed at the Wall Street Journal makes sense:
How do we crack the current outbreak, develop a plan to return to normal life, and ensure that the virus never poses the same threat again? That will require a system that can detect when the virus is spreading. The system would have three components:
First, a sentinel surveillance system, which collects high-quality data from specific locations and can test a statistically representative sample of patients to detect where and when the virus may be spreading. Such a system could help find small pockets of infection before they multiply into larger outbreaks.
Second, rapid and reliable diagnostic tools. Insurance coverage should be mandatory, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should give flexible guidance that encourages doctors to test liberally. If you have any signs or symptoms of Covid-19, you get a test right away with no out-of-pocket payment.
Third, coronavirus serology tests, which screen blood for the antibodies that confer immunity after exposure to a pathogen. This is essential for tailoring interventions to stop local spread. If you know that a large percentage of people have been exposed and developed some immunity, it may allow for less-restrictive measures. These tests can be added to routine blood draws with no additional hassle for the patient.
This should be implemented with all due haste and whatever can be done to expedite the process should be done. That’s the first punch in the one-two punch that will enable all of these “stay at home” directives to be lifted prudently.
The quick tests are key. Would give you a nearly instant result and could send someone into quarantine right away rather than 5 days later when test comes back.
Steve
The country has descended into mass hysteria. No rational voice is heard. Unelected bureaucrats are issuing lockdown orders. Governors and mayors are issuing decrees worthy of Hitler or Nero. The Rhode Island National Guard started going door to door on Saturday in coastal areas searching for New Yorkers. The Governor of Nevada, and his unlicensed medical chief, nullifies the CDC’s approval of drug hydroxychloroquine for treatment of covid-19.
Perhaps we need some calm. From Dr. John Lee, an English physician and epidemiologist writing in the Spectator:
https://spectator.us/deadly-coronavirus-still-far-clear-covid-19/
“Statistically, we would expect about 51,000 to die in Britain this month. At the time of writing, 422 deaths are linked to COVID-19 — so 0.8 percent of that expected total. On a global basis, we’d expect 14 million to die over the first three months of the year.  The world’s 18,944 coronavirus deaths represent 0.14 percent of that total.”
That does not sound like justification for pushing the World’s economy into a full-blown second Great Depression, fully the equal of 1929. Nor does it sound like justification for putting whole cities and states under house arrest.
It does sound like bureaucrats and politicians using an excuse to usurp yet more power over us.
Dr. Lee’s article makes a good point. Presenting patients are a self-selecting group. Co-morbidity blurs the picture. Most Alzheimer patients die of respiratory infections in the end.
This reminds me of a time in the seventies I worked at a factory making golf carts. We had a bomb threat called in. Evacuated. A search was made, but the place was so large, full of bins and metal parts, no one could be sure, so we stood around for an hour until a supervisor, a large man called Tally, yelled F**k this! You all do what you want. I’m going back to work. There was no bomb.