Would a 2 week world wide enforced quarantine stop the virus?

[BrieAndChilli]

If everyone bar essential personnel self isolated for the same 2 weeks would that be enough to stop the spread? So if everyone was tested at the beginngkn by the end of the 2 weeks infected people would be showing symptoms or have had a positive result returned. Those people could then be isolated further but everyone else could return to normal? Would that work?

No absolutely not, stupid idea

No.

1. What if you came down with symptoms towards the end of the two weeks and were then let out
2. You can't test the whole world
3. People are dirty, the virus will linger (we still haven't been told how long it survives outside a host yet)

Where do you draw the line at “essential personnel”? My husband has cancer and his medication is delivered by FedEx - so for us FedEx employees are essential. Let’s think of all the jobs that would be essential and you’d soon see that it covers almost everyone. It’s more than just doctors and nurses. It’s people maintaining phone lines, the national grid, water supplies, people who work in food supply, delivering supplies to hospitals, laundries, public transport to get those people to work, people who fill the ATMs, vets, petrol tanker drivers, oil rig workers, IT technicians....

Sure we could manage two weeks without gardeners, waitresses and cinema ushers but more jobs are essential than people think.

You can't draw the line at essential staff, for example payroll at the NHS would be needed to pay doctors so they wouldn't refuse to work, people who produce food, farmers couldn't isolate and leave their animals to starve, what about who delivers the feed?

The media would have to work and so on

.. And then the childcare providers for all the above.

Define "essential personnel"

No, because what you are suggesting is impossible.

No, for all feb reasons already stated plus people are free to leave and enter the country from almost anywhere in the globe- so they will continue to be a route of transmission.

I can see why it might seem a good idea, but really most of us do have to keep going, and floor the advice we've been given.

As a nurse why should I go to work if most people are staying home? I don't want to catch this virus either and have my own DC and family to think about, not to mention an ill father who would probably die if he caught it. Who's looking after my dc whilst I'm in work?

Yes, in theory, if you put the entire world population into self isolation for a few weeks, it would stop coronavirus in its tracks. But there would be no electricity, water supply, or healthcare... Even then that doesn't guarantee there wouldn't be another outbreak. All it takes is one person (or animal) who is still carrying the virus to start everything off again.

Isnt this what Wuhan did?

“ Yes, in theory, if you put the entire world population into self isolation for a few weeks, it would stop coronavirus in its tracks.”

Wouldn’t it just re emerge when people went back to normal?

Agree with others who point out that "essential personnel" is much wider than you think.

Even if this global isolation was enforcable, and even if this stopped the coronavirus in its tracks, many thousands would die from otherwise preventable reasons not directly related to coronavirus (through neglect, starvation, the cold, through not getting needed medication, missed medical appointments, including treatment and diagnosis etc).

I would be very surprised if there haven't been an awful lot of non-corona deaths in Wuhan.
If you forcibly seal huge numbers of people into their homes, or imprison them in quarantine centres, you will protect people outside the quarantined area. However you will kill many of those inside, and not just from the actual virus.

Why should essential staff be put at risk.

@KittenVsBox
Yes, Wuhan did this, but for longer than two weeks. They are still in lockdown.

I think people assume that the Internet is just kind of 'there'. As people have mentioned, it relies on maintenance engineers, electric board engineers etc etc. Can you imagine the whole world being quarenteined but then not having Internet access?

@KittenVsBox difference being Wuhan could draw on medical personnel etc from the rest of the country, we can't.

I was thinking more along the lines of Wuhan have been in lockdown for well over a month, and the virus is still there.
So I cant see 2 weeks doing anything but delay the onslaught.

The virus is still there as this is the epicentre of the outbreak, but the number of new cases is falling which is the most important thing. The virus is endemic.