No one knows how to handle #3. That's why everyone's pissed at each other!
IMO, in an ideal world, we would've done the following:
1. People who work at nursing homes and the like (these are by & large lousy jobs, most pay poorly and are very understaffed) would've been told, we're quintupling your salary if you're willing to live & work in our nursing home 'bubble.' Many workers would decline, b/c they have kids, etc., and wouldn't be willing to live under such harsh conditions. But, given the high pay, some would accept. And, some other RNs, LPNs, MAs, etc. would've signed up to do it. These workers would've been tested twice daily, pre & post shift. The rapid, ~2 hr. turnaround testing would've been used.
2. Instead of trillion dollar bail outs, the gov't would've paid for this quintupling of salaries for the true essential workers, as well as for all of this covid testing. Maybe we would've been taxed more, but our lives would've stayed normal, making it worth it.
3. The rest of the world would've gone on as normal, by & large.
I don't know if my plan would've worked. But in retrospect, I think that's what we should've done.
Of course, it's easy for me to say this now. It's become clear that covid is primarily a threat to a very restricted population. In the beginning, that wasn't obvious. To me, it started to become clear as northern Italy & NYC were falling apart in mid-to-late March.