Seeking Alpha by Adding Beta

The leaders of countries, corporations and even households have Shakespearean dilemma in front of them: To Open, or Not to Open! With phrase "To be, or Not to be", Prince Hamlet contemplates   death and suicide , bemoaning the pain and unfairness of life but acknowledging that the alternative might be worse (source: Wikipedia). Leaders (and every one of us) have same dilemma of whether it's safe to open the economy and reduce the hardships billions of people (from small businesses across the world to migrant workers in developing countries like India) are going thru or keep the extended lockdowns/shelter-in-place to control the spread of COVID-19 to flatten the curve of infections and unfortunate deaths. By no means it's easy decision same way it was not easy for anyone to lockdown countries and shut down economies at expense of livelihood of billions of people. The most important decision for many leaders in their lifetime will decide how world emerges from this pan

The month of March ended. This month truly changed the world for now. At the start of month, COVID was contained within China with only single digit infected cases showing up in Seattle area and Italy. In fact first death attributed to coronavirus in America happened just before the month started. And at end of month, deaths in America due to virus had crossed 5000 and daily toll almost reaching to 1000+. China was the epicenter of pandemic in Jan and Feb. Europe became the epicenter during March and towards end of March, USA (especially New York) had become epicenter of this pandemic. There are many experts busy thinking of "what-if" scenarios - what if WHO and China would have been more forthcoming and transparent about seriousness of spread; what if Trump had ordered total lock-down in Feb or NY governor Cuomo had prepared NY state better or New Orleans had cancelled its annual Mardi Gras. Many many what-if scenarios. Yes of course many of these would have helped contain