Plan assuming COVID is here to stay

I believe the best strategy for coping with COVID is to assume that it is never going away and that unless we manage it assertively and quickly before the next outbreak, it will continue to significantly disrupt our lives. While a few suggestions follow which I have oversimplified for purposes of brevity and admittedly lack of expertise, I realize that these are only the tip of the iceberg as to what can be done.

Prepare to utilize excess office building capacity to house future COVID patients, which would ease the stressed capacity of hospitals during peak COVID periods. These facilities are plentiful given the work-from-home trend and could likely be retrofitted with little if any structural changes. Also prepare to utilize additional vacant office buildings to administer the vaccines. Other facilities can be set aside to produce hundreds of millions of testing kits along with the ability to get test results within 24 hours.

As for the required manpower, set up a separate organization akin to the National Guard that would be trained and on call for future COVID crises.

For schools, set aside emergency infrastructure funds to upgrade their ventilation systems. Supply schools with on-site testing, an on-site coordinator and 24-hour turnaround of testing results.

I also believe that the necessary measures should be organized and funded nationally. Strong leadership and bipartisan cooperation will be required to accomplish any coordinated plan, which may be the biggest hurdle given the current environment.

While the cost and effort to execute ideas like these will be monumental, the cost of not proactively doing something will be greater.

Michael Lorsch

Lincolnshire