People are looking at this all wrong. You can’t physically stop the spread of this virus. You are going to be exposed to it. Just accept that as fact. And you are going to become “infected” with it. There is nothing you can do to stop it. At that point, one of four things will happen:
1. You will not notice it at all
2. You will get mild symptoms
3. You will get sick and have a bad time for a while
4. You will die
Until there is either a “herd immunity” or a vaccine, that’s just how it is.
Period.
It’s not so cut-and-dry as you post.
1) You can delay being infected so that recoveries free hospital resources for you, in case you need them.
2) You can delay being infected until drugs like the HCQ are available which might save you from death.
3) You might never become infected, at all. Not good odds, but I would expect possible. This would be the “herd immunity” stopping the disease from reaching you.
“Until there is either a “herd immunity” or a vaccine, that’s just how it is.”
The only other thing that will ease the problem is antiviral drugs like hydroxycholoquine or similar immunosuppressants.
From what I understand, most of the deaths that are occurring are not directly from the virus itself but from the response of our immune system to the virus. It goes crazy and start attacking not only the virus but normal cells as well, which lead to death. Kind of like an autoimmune response. They call it a cytokine storm.
By appropriately suppressing the immune system, you can keep it from destroying the good cells while still allowing it to develop antibodies that take care of the virus. After a while (a week or two) you can stop the immunosuppressant and you will be immune to the virus because you will have developed an immunity against it.
In other words the live virus itself will have acted like a vaccine, while the antiviral drugs protected you from your raging immune system.
True, plus one or two variables. If enough people hit #3 at the same time, more will end up in #4. Also, you can reduce the probability of contracting it while vaccines are being developed.