I don't know what the right balance is, and not going to go back through this entire thread to parse out who said exactly what, I understand the positions.
But no country can shut down for months on end without terrible consequences of all sorts. Just yesterday evening, I watched the national news (not MSNBC, Fox or CNN) and learned in Los Angeles alone, they estimate 15,000 kids have no access to internet, or no supervision to make sure they are "attending" on line classes. Even my neighbors, who are upper middle class, say that the on line instruction is really going poorly. Multiply that across America and if we shut down all the way until Christmas, how many kids are not going to get educated properly?
As for universities, who wants to be represented by a lawyer that got her degree on line? Or let an online architect and engineer design and build the bridges? Brain surgery on line anyone? And students are of course the segment of the population least likely to have serious effects from the virus.
Economically, if we don't start opening up at least to a degree fairly soon (early to Mid May possibly?), it could make the Great Depression look like a Sunday School picnic. Yes, the Federal government can print money, for a while at least (with potentially terrible consequences, like Germany in the 1920s, where it took a grocery cart full of money to buy a loaf of bread), but cities and states cannot print money. College towns will be crushed, as will much larger cities which depend on tourism, e.g., Orlando, New Orleans (which is a hot spot right now), etc. Crime rates are down for the moment, but that won't last for long in a large depression (the last one produced Al Capone, Bonnie & Clyde, John Dillinger, et al). State budgets are going to be awful, with no money for social services, police, retirement plans, etc., much less any public projects.
Are none of us going to the dentist or general practitioner doctor for the next year or so? What does that do to the health overall of the population? Not to mention depression, and substance abuse caused by isolation for months on end. (Liquor sales are out of sight, so I have read).
I largely support the social distancing protocols put in place, my business is largely working remotely, with predictably terrible productivity, my wife and I are staying in, but the men and women in charge have to be at least thinking about how to restart the country as safely as possible.
While we all want our loved ones to be as safe as reasonably possible, there can be no complete guaranty of safety, everyone has to understand that, I posted in another thread that there are still 7 cases per year in America of the Bubonic Plague. Polio was just eradicated in 2015 and 2017 world wide (depends on which strain you are talking about) and Jonas Salk invented the vaccine in the early 1950s!
In my view, we need to focus on the most vulnerable of our society, e.g., the very elderly in retirement homes, and those with bad health issues.
