*LOCKDOWN CAN'T LAST FOREVER; HERE IS HOW TO LIFT IT. * - By Adedotun Habeeb Adetunji LL.M (M.IoD), FCAI

We need to hit and release the brakes on physical distancing, again and again, until we safely get to immunity.

Dr. Leung is an infectious disease epidemiologist and dean of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. A Starbucks in Hong Kong enforced social-distancing measures by taping off tables and chairs.

HONG KONG — Lockdowns, quarantines and extreme forms of physical distancing work: They are curbing the spread of Covid-19. But they cannot last indefinitely, at least not without causing enormous damage to economies and compromising peoples’ good will and emotional well-being.

When governments decide to close schools (or not), for example, they are implicitly trying to balance these various interests. One major problem, though: Their calculus about the underlying trade-offs typically is unclear, and the criteria for their policy adjustments are unknown.

A formal framework is needed, with an explicit rationale grounded in science, for determining when and how and based on what factors to relax restrictions — and how to reapply some or all of them should another epidemic wave hit again.
Containment has failed everywhere. In some places — Wuhan in February; northern Italy in March — the epidemic spread so quickly that the relevant authorities had to focus mainly on mitigating its effects, on damage control. In other places, suppression has worked so far: Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan have not experienced sustained local epidemics. Not yet, at least.

Trying to see our way through the pandemic with this “suppress and lift” approach is much like driving a car on a long and tortuous road. One needs to hit the brakes and release them, again and again, to keep moving forward without crashing, all with an eye toward safely reaching one’s final destination. Let's persevere, it will be over soon.

- Adedotun Habeeb Adetunji LL.M (M.IoD), FCAI.