The mortality rate for COIVD is between 7-8% in PA. (* The actual mortality rate is closer to 14%) It has been since the pandemic started, and still is. An estimated additional 15% of the recovered have permanent disabilities. What is the cost of life and health on the economy? The benefit-cost analysis of a human life is generally accepted as US$10 million/dead person. [It is also referred to as the cost of life, value of preventing a fatality (VPF) and implied cost of averting a fatality (ICAF).]
But, what is the cost of lifelong disability? (COD/cost of a disability) That cost is much more difficult to calculate. How much does it cost to keep me alive? How much pain and suffering must I endure? And, how widely does the cost vary from disability to disability? If I need O2 the rest of my life… or if my leg is amputated… or neurological damage, etc.?
So, if the economy benefits by X amount by reopening early… what is the offsetting cost (X-VPF-COD)?
It seems to me this is a no-brainer. Without a doubt, it will be a negative number: X < VPF+COD
Answer: Stop the spread. Stop the dead. Make the bread.