re: How much has social distancing helped?

As someone with CBRN training and experience, I am pleasantly surprised to see how well most Americans have responded to this pandemic. Except for the lack of enough PPE for our health care workers and first responders, our governments have generally been doing an excellent job of keeping this virus at a manageable level.

Long-established emergency management plans at the local, state and federal levels have been followed, proving the worth of constant joint training and exercises by our police, fire and health departments in conjunction with local hospitals and other health care agencies and our military establishment. This has been a national effort in preparedness ever since September 11, 2001.

I think we could have even handled a novel influenza virus, would would be much scarier than a novel coronavirus. This pandemic isn’t over yet but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I hope everyone appreciates the extreme efforts of our health care workers and their cohorts in the police, fire and military agencies.