the US tobacco industry is about a $100Billion market
Smoking causes about 480,000 deaths in the US EVERY year. And we as a society are PERFECTLY fine with accepting that PREVENTABLE loss. The majority of Idahoans would certainly be fine with this loss (dead smokers) in exchange for an individual’s FREEDOM of smoking if you want to (or the freedom to spread covid)–ignoring the 10% of related deaths due to innocent second-hand smoke, of course. :/

The value to the US economy to maintain a tobacco industry /the # of deaths = each life must be worth less than $208,000 to the US economy.
So economy vs a life- $208,000.
It’s just math.

if we unleash the Idaho economy and let people gather as they please right now- I GUESS we will lose 2,000 – 4,000 more Idahoans, to the virus, in the next year that would not otherwise die. This is Mike Pence’s “A-hole Model” of doing things like going into the Mayo Clinic withOUT ppe.

Anyway, we as a society are obviously okay with Idahoans dying EVERY YEAR at the rate of 900 smoker deaths; 400 diabetes related deaths; and 3,000+ deaths related to heart disease—EVERY YEAR–deaths mostly preventable with a new pair of sneakers for everyone. Yet, Idaho does NOTHING collectively to prevent these deaths.

So we’ll be okay with an additional 2,000 deaths, right?
Ergo, 2,000 deaths x $208,000 = $416,000,000 value. Reasonable?

Idaho’s GDP is about 70 billion.
An estimates is Covid closures are costing about 5% per month. So 300 million per month? What if it’s 3 billion for the whole year?

What if the death rate go crazy because YOUR medical facility is not able to help all the sick? Our current 70 deaths is WHILE resources are available. Not enough respirators all at once- maybe 10 times increase in deaths. Still worth it?

Or, be slow about it and reserve the possibility of shutting things down again if the # get beyond “an acceptable loss” ?

cost/benefit. It’s just math.
What are the alternatives?
We still do not have an organized testing/monitoring system!!!

I support the Governor’s AND Mayor McClean’s effort in their considerate and safe measures to deal with this crisis. Slow and steady. Crush the curve. Not hog-wild with m5s on the Capital steps.

*
Raul Labrador (along with most of the Teabaggers)says, “Open it up”.
But he doesn’t offer what is the acceptable alternative.
“The decision to reopen Idaho must be based on a complete analysis of the costs to our society” he wrote.

Great! What’s YOUR analysis Raul, and others promoting the idea?

EDITOR NOTE–Enough said. We will come up with another topic.

This is a public health crisis, epidemic, pandemic, not a choice for anyone.

The country does not have the tools to deal with it. Please comply and keep your stinky asses home.

American was deeply divided before this event by our politics and media. Sadly, and terrifyingly, that division has been intentionally created and aggressively expanded by the same people we are now wanting to lead us clear of the minefield.

PS: Any bets on how many cruise ships are allowed to sink ‘by accident’ for the insurance money.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340443425_Saving_Lives_vs_Saving_Dollars_-The_Acceptable_Loss_For_COVID-19

Smart people actually do that intrinsic calculation— Not like the church lady getting arrested, not Wayne at IFF, and not the hillbillies crying at the Capital steps.
Reasonable people. Real people, like Governors, responsible for those outcomes have to make that decision.

Actually, it’s been going on for over 200 years.
All within ‘acceptable deaths’:
Poor health care.
Military wars.
Poverty.
Gun control.
Drugs.
Domestic violence.
Police abuse of power.
etc.
How many is okay vs the cost of prevention?

And @the White House- I can think of 2 justifiable and acceptable losses. The irony would be a miracle–let us pray for the right thing to happen.

A person can do for a short time what they would not want to do forever.

I am very sorry to see the jobs lost and the entrepreneurs who are getting whacked. Hopefully they have corps. and have held onto their own homes, etc.

But they will say there are way, way too many retail outlets in the USA compared to other countries, so it is not all the fault of covid19.

Restaurants are the riskiest business a person can try.

I think going forward PPE for all is really key. Don’t fence me in in my mind means don’t breathe on me.

Bonnie?
How about 5,000 Idahoans dead in order to have all the businesses running, paying taxes, and overfilling the medical system? Is that an acceptable toll?
500? 1,000?

If we go over that “acceptable loss number” then what?

Where’s the beef?

A fan of the radical 3percenters, including her Facebook posting and including them as her security detail for the election debates, she shows bad judgment.

remember she and her husband own an restuarant in I.F. No doubt that is the driving force for her opinion on lifting the stay-at-home law.