Preventing Covid-19 - separation not just isolation

Seen as most people with symptoms don’t self-isolate and super-spreaders are going to carry on regardless without a care. Is there an alternative way in which Covid-19 can be stopped..?

The biggest problem with isolating once you have the symptoms is that it’s too late; the virus has been passed on already in the several days previous when there were no symptoms. If only we knew from day 1 when people got infected rather than several days later.

Maybe the answer is separation and not isolation?

i.e. separate the people who won't keep their distance/wash their hands from those who will. The former group (the pro-covid group) are probably going to get it anyway. So let them get it in a controlled way and they can separate themselves from others before they catch it. This will stop super-spreaders.

What if shops, pubs, other small businesses and people were to identify themselves as ‘pro-covid’ or ‘anti-covid’. So people who have Covid or who don’t believe in taking precautions would be classed as ‘pro-covid’ and can shop, eat, drink at specific places (or times) as long as they wear an identifiable pro-covid marker like a lanyard so that ‘anti-covid’ people and vulnerable people who want to take precautions and wash their hands know who they are and can keep their distance. The problem is not everyone believes in exercising caution or distancing and you can’t force them to. These people will probably catch it anyway so let them catch it, but rather than allowing them to be a super-spreader and passing it on unknowingly to vulnerable people in public, let them 'shop and spread' in a controlled environment. Whether that be in designated areas or specific times of the day. So people who want to be safe will be safer and people who believe in freedom and want to take their chances can do so.

A good example would be to use students who can isolate in halls with like-minded people - because a certain percentage of them are going to mix anyway so identify the ones who are going to mingle anyway and let them socialise in their pro-covid bubble where they can catch it at the same time. This will give them and others they come into contact with in the future greater protection from greater immunity. A certain percentage may catch it again, but what percentage is this? Less than 5%? Surely that’s a good trade off. It will also allow others who are vulnerable or who fully intend to stick to the rules can fully separate themselves from the other spreaders. This is the only way to limit the spread! And it needn’t be for a long time, just a 2 week trial. At the very least it should be piloted in one area. Such as a university, where they are not interacting with others who do not have covid.

Even if just 1 young healthy person in a thousand were to become seriously ill from getting covid after such an experiment - they would have prevented the spread from infecting a further 3 to 4 thousand people! (because the ‘R’ value in people who don’t believe in social distancing is probably over 3 or 4 compared to 0.5 or less in the ones who do.

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