Category Archives: Disease

Tiny Houses for Quarantine

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For the COVID pandemic, we had quarantine in homes for locals, and quarantines in hotels or dedicated facilities for international arrivals. Even in countries like NZ that legendarily cut themselves off from the rest of the world, the virus still snuck in.

You can’t/won’t 100% stop people entering a country. Repatriation flights have crew. Goods arrive by manned flights and ships. Special permission is given to dignitaries and the rich & famous.

The next pandemic will hopefully see a country locked out from the rest of the world before it spreads to other countries. The best way to achieve that anywhere the virus appears is to shutdown the town/city where it is. That provides new challenges, as there often won’t be enough hotels to use for quarantine, and usually there won’t be any dedicated facilities. At the same time, supplies need to come in and out.

One thing we can do is have portable quarantine facilities that can be relocated to where they are needed, and that can by built-for-purpose tiny houses. These, by design, already fit on trailers. There’s even one that unfolds, for $US50K.

It just needs some tweaks:

  • Hospital grade air-conditioning
  • Food delivery hatches
  • A fence to limit outdoor exercise distance

Forced Transience

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There are two very clear, recent trends;

  1. Work from home
  2. Fewer physical possessions

Combine these with a pandemic and anti-vaxxers, and we can order all of those people to move to the same city and infect each other.

Literally, WFH people can be ordered to live somewhere if they have unacceptable ideas, that aren’t quite illegal, but putting them all in the same place makes sense.

The Best Solution to Pandemics (in hindsight)

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After decades of planning for the next pandemic, it appears it was just the maths of it we worked out, not the practical response. In hindsight here’s my opinion of how to plan for the next virus:

  • National authority – having cities and states with their own rules does not help. One national body should have overarching control over every aspect of the response
  • Trained and monitored people in crucial situations – where infection is more likely – travellers, quarantine, hospitals, care homes & industries like abattoirs – providing leaflets is not enough. Repeated on the spot training and 24/7 monitoring is essential. Dollars spent here can save thousands for the economy
  • Close borders early – every country would have, if they could turn back time, closed borders sooner. The #1 best response is to not let the virus in. That means accepting that sometimes jumping the gun hurts the economy for no reason.
  • Fewer lockdown stages – from day one, make masks, social distancing, and no crowds, mandatory. Stage two is the most extreme, where you stay at home except for when it is essential. Harsher lock downs, sooner
  • Dedicated quarantine centres – we have them in Australia for pets and racehorses, we can make them for people. Remove the ability for the virus to escape quarantine
  • Enforced isolation – in Australia, 50% of people who were told to self-isolate still left their homes. All self-isolation must be strictly monitored, ideally with ankle bracelets or a phone app that uses location
  • Concierge – people in self-isolation need zero excuses to break the rules. So give them a hotline to a concierge who will coordinate all their heath and supplies, for free. Even give people a free Uber Eats account. Make them feel like they are treated well for the inconvenience.
  • Reward, not punish – if someone tests positive, there are things they need to do, like self-isolate and not have visitors. They will often not be able to work. Reward them – like giving everyone who tests positive $500, on top of any other welfare payments. Obviously it can’t be high enough that people choose to catch it!
  • No limits on testing – if the system can’t cope, improve the system. In an ideal world, everyone gets tested in the first week. Like the entire city or country.
  • Natural boundaries – when one location has an outbreak and locks down, make the location a natural one, not an administrative one.
  • Money matters not – federal governments can print more money. Not a single decision should be based on money.
  • Prison for people who spread misinformation – no bail. Lock them up. Be harsh.
  • All interest, repayments and rent on hold – for anybody who has to close their business or cannot work.

Being Ready for the Next Wave/Pandemic

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It has obviously been a huge learning curve, and the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic is that every country could have responded better. Aside from populist leaders denying the severity, I don’t think anyone is to blame.

What does bother me is that we are not thinking of the next. Normal protocol is to deal the now, and then have a year or two of commissions and enquiries.

Because there is bound to be multiple waves, and any other pandemic can still occur at any time, we need to start our next level of response now.

We have some facts we can base our new responses on:

Aside from the originating city/country, the virus arrives via visitors. If you stop all visitors, you don’t get the virus.

Stopping all visitors is not good in other ways:

  • tourism
  • business
  • sport
  • repatriation

So some countries have introduced quarantines. The countries that introduced these earliest and hardest have been the least affected by the pandemic.

Quarantine is a relatively cheap solution, relative to deaths and economic losses. It is fair to say that there should be no limit on expense put towards quarantine. Because if you get it perfect, your city/country can complete avoid the virus.

Here’s the thing:

Countries like Australia, with no land borders and a need to protect flora and fauna, already have super-tight quarantine measures in place for plants and animals.

For example, “All pets entering Australia, except those from New Zealand or Norfolk Island are subject to 10 days of quarantine at the Mickleham Quarantine Facility at Melbourne.”

We simply need to apply the same levels of biosecurity to humans entering our city/country. And that means investment in new and dedicated infrastructure. Not using existing facilities like homes and hotels.

Solution:

Purpose-built quarantine centres, designed for pandemics, with their own airports.

We can start building them today. Even if the next pandemic is 100 years away, an airport and buildings will still be the solution. And still a mighty cheap way of avoiding an economic crisis.

Buildings and runways require maintenance, and more value can be had from using them for other things. So meanwhile, lets use them for animals and plants, for refugees, or as a low-security prison (we can free existing prisoners in case of a pandemic).

Facilities:

  • Own, international length airport
  • Self-contained accomodation units, with no connection to each other
  • “airlocks” for the transmission of food and other supplies
  • Highly trained staff

The jobs are low-skilled but require a high degree of trust, so outsourcing is not acceptable.

Given the potential of decades between being needed, staff can be used for other roles – anything that can be done remotely, for example cyber-security. As long as the key criteria is to be able to manage a quarantine situation, we can have staff who perform any other government roles.

Place the facility close enough to a regional city and it is good for the economy.

Bonus points:

Have some planes that can be adapted to transporting potentially contagious people.

If Australia already had the above, I am sure we would be virus-free today