One thing that most don't think about in this discussion. They say we are flattening the curve. What does that really mean? It means we are saving people because the hospitals can handle the load of sick. If we didn't flatten the curve more would die sooner, our front line fighters would die. So staying the course at this point is good.
The CDC wants these guidelines in place to stay going forward, but eventually the virus will make itself known to every town in every county in each state and every country in the world. Most will actually get the virus. So the self quarantine should be in place for 6 months in many places. This buys time to prove out and manufacture mass quantities of therapeutics and get closer to a vaccine.
However, a 3 month or a six month shutdown will kill way more than the virus, most businesses will fail and leave behind unemployed people, who used to work for great companies and now are broke financially and mentally.
So at some point soon, we will have to open things back up, do everything we can to get the the vulnerable to the time of a vaccine and try to tip the scale to the side of saving the most lives.
There is no 100% right answer. We don't have a template to follow for a country of our size and there isn't a template for us to follow when the 2nd round comes.
I pray for the President, his teams, the Governors, that they make the right decisions and of course all of the people who are truly affected.