We need a system solution to COVID-19. We need the ability to detect the virus at the earliest time possible, the ability to sanitize areas once it is detected, the ability to treat and cure those who contract the virus, and finally, the ability to guard against the virus in the future. The social-distancing solution is a good response to the immediate threat and the risk of spreading. While the current self-distancing continues, we need to understand how, as a society, we will go back to our normal lives with improvements to prevent the future outbreak of this or the next contagion.
Yesterday we had to go to the market for weekly grocery shopping. My wife and I masked up and headed to our local Albertsons. They’re doing a great job. We waited in a marked social-distancing line outside to control shopper density inside the store. Wipes were available to disinfect the cart as we entered. Flow control in the store helped people move efficiently through each aisle without passing within the tight space. Two checkout lines at opposite ends of the store limited crowding at the registers. A store employee wearing a mask directed people to the open registers. An acrylic barrier at the register provided a barrier between worker and customer. New bags were used for bagging rather than customers’ potentially infected bags. The debit card pin pad was covered with thin plastic which allowed sanitizing between each customer contact. Needless to say, they are doing a great job protecting customers.
Sadly, that wasn’t our last stop. The market didn’t have any paper supplies which meant we had to go to another store. We headed to our local Costco, but the line outside told us we weren’t going in there. Our other local warehouse store, Sam’s Club didn’t have a line, so we got a cart and headed in. We received a wipe at the door to sanitize our cart which started things out on the right foot. After that the store was doing little to help with social distancing.
The flow through the store was random. People wandered the aisles just as before the pandemic. Not all employees were wearing protective facemasks. Worst of all, most of the checkout lines were open, more than half were self-check. People were crowded in the checkout area waiting to checkout, no social-distancing guide marks were on the floor to help assure good spacing. Worst of all, the barcode readers were being passed from customer to customer without sanitation, and the keypads were also unprotected. At the regular checkout registers, no barriers were in place to separate customer from checker. Finally, the line exiting the store was long and slow causing another crowding area. The situation could not have been worse.
My first thought is we are all not doing everything we can to control the immediate situation. While we can’t change the basic infrastructure of a store in the short-term, the difference between the two stores we visited yesterday suggest everyone is not doing all they can.
We notoriously put the burden on the people. A basic issue with our government I deal with in many articles is the belief that government is here to tell us what to do. If we could overcome the paradigm of politicians as rulers and experts, we could get back to a government of the People to provide for the general welfare. We definitely can do much better. Why aren’t all local communities working diligently to help stores control the spread of COVID-19? Many are, but not all know what they could be doing. I’ve seen many articles about people being cited for violating stay-at-home orders, like a couple watching the sunset inside their car near the beach. This is the typical police-state paradigm. What I don’t see is anyone telling all stores to do better protecting their customers.
I searched the internet for guidance on preventing the spread of COVID-19 and found information on the CDC website. The CDC has guidance on covering keyboards with wipeable covers which is exactly what Albertson’s has done. There is also guidance on social distancing, but what I didn’t see was advice on crowd control tactics, suggestions on merchandise handling, how to organize checkout lines, organizing customer flow patterns, or limiting self-checkout. The bottom line is we can do more. While some stores like Albertsons are already doing these things, others, like Sam’s Club, don’t understand what could be done leaving their customers at risk. What I realized as I looked for solutions is we haven’t engaged the public by making managed use of the available technology.
The government is treating the public as they typically do, as the masses who need direction from authority. I expect more from our government. I don’t expect the government to come up with solutions on its own or through its network of the usual suspects. Solutions should come from the people. I expect the government to help get the people involved in the solution and promote good ideas that help everyone rather than cite individuals for minor indiscretions. Promoting good ideas that help everyone or helping stores virus-protect their customers is much more effective than chasing those dangerous perps watching the sunset.
In science, engineering, research, product development, corrective action across all industries, and the day-to-day operation of businesses we believe diversity is key to success. We have the tools and technology to create diverse solutions by asking the public for their ideas. Rather than trying to do everything from within the exclusive government network, we should have government websites providing people the opportunity to offer their solutions. Instead only private websites provide a collection of diverse ideas which is effective but takes time to proliferate. If we had a flow of organized suggestions, clustering algorithms could be used to analyze the data. The public has done what they can with social media. The government must do more by creating inclusiveness and driving solution sets arising from our wonderfully diverse, engaged, and intelligent population.
The medical community is addressing treatment on a continuing basis and doing a great job. Just this morning I saw a video about Dr.Vladimir Zelenko’s success in treating COVID-19 patients. I also saw guidance from Massachusetts General Hospital on prone positioning of patients to help respiration. Without the internet these ideas would have taken even longer to be recognized by the medical community. Imagine the ideas out there that haven’t reached the publicity of the internet. We need to catalyze the collection and evaluation of ideas to help accelerate the process of deploying the good ones.
Even more importantly, as we emerge from the social-distancing shutdown that has helped control COVID-19, we need ideas on how our lives will change as a result. Many disasters drive changes in laws and regulations for the better. I’m not a huge advocate of government control, but guidance on how to improve the human condition are certainly acceptable. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake that caused homes to literally jump off their foundations, the building code was changed to include wall tie-downs at the corners of newly constructed homes. By doing so, those new homes will not bounce off their foundations. Are there similar solutions for the spread of disease? I’m sure there are.
A recent simulation by Aalto University shows how the virus can be spread in a supermarket from aisle to aisle. This information tells us something about how we can control the spread of future airborne diseases. In a typical building design, air is circulated from ceiling vents to returns also in the ceiling. Part of this design is based on the practicality of heating and air conditioning units positioned on the roof. The design depends on air movement for customer comfort that unfortunately also helps to spread airborne contagions. A better design to reduce the spread of contagions would be vertical laminar flow from ceiling to floor. This air flow would reduce the effect shown in the Aalto University simulation. This is an idea that comes from the control of dust in cleanrooms and paint booths.
These are the types of ideas we need to help protect people against future contagions. We need a government we can depend on not to tell us what to do, but to help us figure out what can be done. The government needs to foster ideas as an outgrowth of engaging the People. With inclusive thinking, diverse ideas can be evaluated, and the good ones enabled. This type of thinking overcomes the exclusive ruling elite and provides solutions for our future that grow out of our wonderfully diverse, engaged, and intelligent population.