The TSAP's Updated "Back To True Normal" Plan

The True Spirit of America Party (TSAP) has since April strongly opposed lockdowns, or at least those that were excessive and/or lasting beyond the initial "15 days to flatten the curve", and strongly supported a phased reopening sooner than later.   That does not make us "COVID deniers" or right-wingers or anything like that, just supporters of basic common sense and human rights.  We have always taken this pandemic seriously, and support following the actual science, but we know that panicking and throwing the wisdom of the ages out the window like most of the world did back in March (and many places are still doing) has proven to do far more harm than good.

We originally proposed four phases of reopening:   Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase Out.  And essentially all of the USA should have entered Phase Out by July 4, 2020 ("Reborn on the Fourth of July") at the latest per our original plan.

As of October 2020, the TSAP current supports the entire USA (all 50 states and all territories) to be in Phase Out.  Our current definition of Phase Out is roughly equivalent to Florida's current Phase 3 (i.e. everything reopened at full capacity, and generally pre-empting stricter restrictions at the local level), but with the following modifications:

• Until January 1, 2021, a hard limit of 500 people should remain in effect for all non-business and non-school gatherings that do not have numbered seats.  Indoor or quasi-indoor gatherings shall have a limit of 50, albeit with some exceptions.
• From November 4, 2020 onward, certain events that have numbered seats may exceed this threshold, provided that adequate physical distancing and airflow/ventilation are present, along with other precautions.
• Just because 100% capacity is permissible, that does NOT mean that it is OK to exceed 100%.  Existing health and fire codes from before the pandemic should be strictly enforced.
• Stricter restrictions may be imposed for limited times (two to three weeks) on local and carefully-defined "red zones" where significant local outbreaks are known to be occurring.  All areas are "green zones" by default unless such outbreaks are proven to be occurring.
• In green zones, no mask mandates outside of healthcare settings, except perhaps very narrowly-defined ones such as public transit and polling places until January 1, 2021.  Otherwise voluntary.  Red zones can still have broad mask mandates lasting no more than a few weeks.
• After January 1, 2021, no restrictions except in any bona fide red zones that remain.

It is long past time to phase out our COVID restrictions and return to the true normal.  And of course, refurbish the rule of law--something these arbitrary restrictions make an utter mockery of.

UPDATE:  See also here for a good piece on a rational reopening guide that fully respects individual rights, written by Megan Mansell at Rational Ground.  Additionally, the TSAP also recommends mathematically ending the "casedemic" problem by swiftly lowering the PCR testing cycle threshold to at most 34 amplification cycles, if not 30, to be considered positive, and also confirming all positives with a retest. Currently, many labs do as much as 40 or even more still, causing numerous false positives.

And speaking of Florida, more than a month after Florida went to Phase 3 on September 25, one can see from a cursory look at Worldometer that since then, their trends in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have been virtually identical to those of California.  That is, one of the currently most open states in the USA has virtually identical trends to the very least open state as of November. Ditto for wide-open Georgia with no state or local mask mandate and also (with the notable exception of unusually hard-hit El Paso) wide-open Texas with a mask mandate still in effect.  It's almost like the virus really doesn't care about our policies at all, at least in the long run.

Seasonality, however, does appear to be a very real, and razor-sharp, double-edged sword.  Perhaps the idea of allowing a "safe spread summer" (instead of artificially suppressing it and inevitably pushing it into the fall and winter) wasn't so crazy after all?

And as of mid-November, California's trends have actually become worse than Florida's, even shattering their own previous case records despite increasingly tight restrictions in the former and the latter still being wide open.  Really makes you think.