What You Want to See from Governing Entities Regarding COVID-19

As in... What would you like to see, if anything, from Congress/Biden Administration/State Governments etc. when it comes to combating COVID-19 and or any lingering economic impacts?

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So... for anyone who's been living under a rock lately, the entire globe has sort of been embroiled in a world-wide pandemic for well over two years now. In just the U.S. alone, the death toll is well on its way to exceeding 850k. For contrast, that's several thousand more than twice the number of Americans that died in the Iraq War, the Afgan War, and all of World War II combined...

That said, the COVID-19 virus, as we initially faced it, had a relatively high survivability rate, at least compared to many diseases we've seen in the past, but it was always its propensity to spread rapidly from person to person that granted it the ability to wreck such overall devastation on our population. People, our friends, neighbors, coworkers, our family members, at the worst points of this pandemic, all died by the thousands on a daily basis. And the death rate is still uncomfortably high even now. This, despite the advent of vaccines and other medical treatments. With all that in mind, its really no wonder at all why there is such wide-spread agreement, here at politicalforum and elsewhere, that COVID-19 currently tops the list of issues we need to deal with?

I'm sure that many of us were aware, or at least certainly we were told by the experts... that the COVID-19 virus would be with us, spreading throughout our communities for a good while to come. At the same time, by this point, I don't think most of us were expecting that pandemic levels of infection would still be with us as well. Yet here we are...

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Speaking just of the U.S., Congress did of course pass that COVID Relief bill a little while ago, which attempted to address some of the economic concerns in relation to COVID among other things. And of course we have our vaccines now + things like monoclonal antibody treatments and now also the new COVID Anti-viral pills. Though given the limitations and side-affects of the latter, and the recent emergence of newer COVID variants such as Delta and Omicron coming onto the scene and complicating things, is all that really enough? With younger children, immunocompromised, and others unable to utilize the vaccines, the ever-present specter of breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, hospital capacities in many states still being overburdened, their staffs being overworked,
and a large section of our population still unvaccinated, it would appear that we as country yet remain in a pretty tough spot. There do seem to be some promising signs on the horizon that we may be in the process of rounding the bend, but of course, this wouldn't be the first time during this thing that things have seemed that way.

So given that predicament, I'd like to understand better exactly what sorts of specific policies and or actions people here would like to see from our government on the matter and to get a feel for what the consensus is on how congress, the current administration, and state/local governments might best handle the COVID-19 issue along with any of the ongoing economic impacts.

At some point, I'll use the suggestions gathered from this thread to set up a Ranked Vote.
See links below for more info on that:
Ranked Vote: Discussion Thread (includes schedule)
What To Do To Reduce Partisan Dysfunction In Politics
Solutions Oriented Approach to Restoring Meaningful Civil Discourse​

So... what are your thoughts folks? What sorts of things would you like our government to be doing on COVID? Something to slow or stop the spread of the virus itself? Initiatives to provide treatments for those already infected? Investments in Health Infrastructure? Improvements involving testing, vaccine distribution, production, or advancement? Any mandates, regulations, initiatives, recommendations you want to see? Something more to address economic concerns? Knowledge sharing or communication outreach? International partnerships? Cost controls?

Note that creative out of the box solutions are welcome here.

Give your suggestions, your hopes, your wishes. What are things that are not happening now that you'd like to see started? Or of things that are already underway, what specific actions or activities do you want to see continued or accelerated? Are there any things you'd like to see stopped? Congressional bills, executive orders, information sharing etc. etc. What do you want to see?

Looking forwards to reading your thoughts on this!

-Meta

 

Ideas so far:

-Drop any and all mandates (including those that result in closed businesses, churches, orgs, and schools) [1][2][3]
-Accept it is here to stay and Sit tight and wait for science to develop newer vaccines
-Governments and private companies should form partnerships to develop new more effective vaccines
-Tell people the truth and Be open and transparent about what treatments work and what don't [1][2]
-Quarantine all infected persons until they are clear
-If the disease appears in a city or a city block, Quarantine that area until clear
-Require 5-7 day isolation after testing positive for Covid
-Work on making vaccines and anti viral meds more readily available
-Avoid prioritizing treatments on anything other than medical issues (e.g. no race-based considerations)
-Help fund any vaccine that may actually hold off infection for a longer period of time
-Provide additional funding for vaccine study to help develop better vaccines
-Provide more access to tests
-Prohibit both private and public employers from mandating/requiring Covid-19 vaccines for their employees
-Prohibit schools from requiring Covid-19 vaccines for students
-Mandate school districts to remove any and all masking requirements
-Mandate that schools do not quarantine healthy students
-Ensure tax payer investment is payed back by asking vaccine/test/mask companies to pay back additional taxes based on their profits
-Educate people and encourage them to make better choices
-Ration supplies (vaccines, masks, tests, ventilators, therapeutics, etc.) and distribute based on age and name
-Government entities should stop using pharmaceutical company donations to fund research regarding their own products
-Governments should continue with all current Covid mitigation policies
-Mandate that all businesses be locked down and provide them with appropriate financial compensation
-Provide 10 free K95 masks to everyone by mail until the Covid virus has been eradicated
-Bring back fat shaming and encourage people to improve their physical fitness with exercise​

 

Well, we can certainly hope for that. With the Omicron surge it does seem to be less deadly (though still pretty deadly for many). If new variants follow that same trend and continue to result in fewer deaths per infection, getting to a point where it really is just seen and treated as no more than the flue doesn't really seem so unthinkable. We aren't there yet though. Regarding the development of newer vaccines, is that something you feel government should have any involvement in? Or is it something you think should be better left to private interests? And if government should be involved, do you think current funding priorities are acceptable or should there be shifts in where and or how much government support is provided to the development of those newer vaccines?

 

Can you expand on that a bit? I'm assuming you're not suggesting that we mirror China's policies exactly, right? So would this be like telling folks to voluntarily quarantine on their own? Would space be provided by governing entities to facilitate that? Would it be honor system type thing or would there be some sort of new enforcement mechanism to compel folks to do it? Also, what would quarantining a city/city block look like? Thanks,