Dumb and smart in the Coronavirus battle

Shutting down the 2nd Street market wasn’t a brilliant idea. Local farmers depended on a place to sell their eggs and meat. For some people, they depend on it. Where else but The Chef Case can you get all gluten free food? Why put those restaurants out of business while allowing others to stay open for carry out. The solution was to not have any of the non-food vendors open. Clear away the tables to allow social distancing while waiting for food from the food vendors- and have people enter one end- and walk straight through to the other to pick up meat and eggs. It’s no different than a Kroger when you think rationally. Dumb award to Metroparks.

If we were smart, we’d already be building roll-over triage space on the Fairgrounds property for Miami Valley. Set up the National Guard with a field hospital, and start preparing people. In some ways, when the weather starts warming up, it’s easier to sanitize an open air field hospital than it is standard hospital room. We’ll need additional beds guaranteed, and the time to start building that capacity is now. We might also look at the closed Gibbon Hotel at Third and Main as a potential place for quarantine quarters. Off the top of my head, I can’t identify as many other rooms that are available. Using a hotel that’s in operation isn’t as practical, since the first thing you’ll want to remove is carpet. I don’t think the Dayton Marriot or even the Crown Plaza would like that requirement. It’s too bad we let Premier tear down Good Sam now… huh? It would have come in handy after the Tornadoes too.

While some stores are limiting hours for those over 65, or quantities of key items, the real key is to stop stores from being full. Maybe it’s time to dice up the days of the week for people to shop by the first letter of their last name. Mondays- A-D, Tuesdays E-H etc. Then also break up the day by first hours to those who are old, or compromised, then the rest through the rest of the day. With less people in the store- social distancing at checkout gets easier.

Neighborhoods should start trying to identify who in their neighborhood depends on outside help for basic daily functions and make sure someone is checking on them. We’re working out surveys in our neighborhood to do this, as well as identifying who has medical and health care experience.

There is no playbook for a pandemic in this country. It’s time to bring the best minds together on how to minimize the impact of the coronavirus at every step of it’s course through our community. If you’ve got ideas, please leave them in the comments.

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