This article is certainly making the rounds, so let's break it down:
So, this is a common tactic that right wing media uses when attacking science. To argue against evolution, they find guy with a doctorate who believes in intelligent design. To argue against global warming, they find someone with a doctorate to argue that the world is getting colder. It doesn't matter how much of outliers these people are. It doesn't matter the number of professional organizations who wholly disagree with them. The right wing media just needs to find one. Congrats NYPost.
This is just an idiotic statement. There was no "natural course of the outbreak" that didn't include some level of heightened isolation. Not in NY, not in Wuhan, not in Italy. We, as humans in the 21st century, understand the benefit of isolation in fighting an outbreak. Anybody who follows this shit understands that, however bad it was as described the preceding paragraphs, it would have been worse without isolation. I don't know if the doctor is this stupid (and certainly, many doctors are stupid) or if he is meaning to say something different.
Yes, people are afraid to go to hospitals. I think some public announcements could counter that. You know what won't? A resurgence of COVID cases, which is exactly what you will get if people pull back on isolation too quickly.
This is my biggest bitch about most of those who are advocating for "reopening the economy." Yeah, there are things that should be re-opened. Once there is enough PPE to handle elective surgeries, and enough ICU/ventilator space to deal with the small percentage of people who have complications from such surgeries, I think elective surgeries should be allowed. If there is enough PPE for general care providers to see patients, and have established procedures to minimize chances of transmissions, I think they should start seeing patients. But that should not be confused with going out to eat, getting hair cuts, and going to movies. In fact, I see those as being in competition with each other. Because if a bunch of people stop social distancing, we will up additional COVID patients, which will reduce the PPE and scare people, and fewer people will go to their doctors and get important elective surgeries. This is a question of priorities, not a binary decision between open and closed.
For fucks sake, that is not a random sample. He is either being intentionally misleading with that stat, or he is proof that some doctors are morons. (As are many engineers, plumbers, teachers, etc..) In NY state, we are still only at most at 4.2% of the population overall being tested. (Probably much less than that, but I don't know how many people have received multiple tests.) There are plenty of qualified people trying to estimate what percentage of the population are carrying the virus. He isn't one of the qualified people trying to do this. He's just the guy the Post found.
That last sentence is just unmitigated bullshit. How does "getting back to work" help essential workers? It doesn't.