> The scientific solution to contain the pandemic would be a full 21 day absolute shutdown of everything with people surviving on rations.
It is not even a guaranteed solution. It will bring back cases to almost zero. In some rare cases, incubation time can be way longer than 21 days, you are also going to have people with weak immune systems that can contain the infection but not eliminate it completely, plus all the bad things that can happen: mutations, animal transmission, etc...
Then, if we just go back to business as usual after the super-lockdown, it will spread again, just as it started. As long as R>1 there is no way to win. And for now the only way to keep R<1 is to make our lives more or less miserable (today's solution), herd immunity through infections (and let millions die), and herd immunity though vaccines (our goal).
It is not even a guaranteed solution. It will bring back cases to almost zero. In some rare cases, incubation time can be way longer than 21 days, you are also going to have people with weak immune systems that can contain the infection but not eliminate it completely, plus all the bad things that can happen: mutations, animal transmission, etc...
Then, if we just go back to business as usual after the super-lockdown, it will spread again, just as it started. As long as R>1 there is no way to win. And for now the only way to keep R<1 is to make our lives more or less miserable (today's solution), herd immunity through infections (and let millions die), and herd immunity though vaccines (our goal).