Only a small minority of the population has had it, and we have no idea how strong the immunity is and how long it lasts.
We don't know precisely, but all indications are (once you rule out unreliable testing) is that people are not getting reinfected. Long enough to generate herd immunity and kill this thing.
What new knowledge are you referring to?
Lots of things.
1. We know with a high degree of certainty who the most vulnerable are. They should be quarantined and protected to the best of our ability, which will significantly limit deaths.
2. We know that heat also slows this thing down considerably, well guess what season we're heading towards? It's already warming up in NYC significantly, which should improve things a good deal.
3. Individually we have all learned to benefits of social distancing, washing our hands, and wearing masks (gloves don't really help). That too will significantly slow down the spread.
That won't help at all if they have to squeeze into crowded trains and buses to get to work or sit shoulder to shoulder with an infected person for 2 hours in a movie theater. And masks alone aren't nearly effective enough to "flatten the curve".
You make a lot of assumptions, and clearly suffer from a lack of faith in the average human. The average human, completely voluntarily shut themselves indoors, to their detriment in many cases. The average human is going to social distance. The average human won't be sitting shoulder to shoulder in a movie theater.
Now, if NYC wasn't run by a buffoon, the logical solution to your bus and train problem would be to run extra trains to keep the density in the trains and buses low, and that would allow some social distancing. Unfortunately, I highly doubt the city's leaders are competent enough to actually do that, so it's likely that Manhattan will be the last place to open in any significant way (people commute back and forth into Manhattan primarily for business). That would be another temporary solution for your bus/train problem as well.
I'm not suggesting we open things up completely, in fact nobody is. Some opening is definitely possible. Shutting everything down at this point is silly, and is causing many deaths unnecessarily.
Well, the experts disagree. And even with the current restrictions we still have around 2000 deaths every day.
"The experts"
You mean the ones you listen to. There are many doctors with credentials matching the credentials of those who you listen to, but unfortunately anyone who disagrees with the group think of the day, even if backed with science, is shut down by the likes of Facebook, Google, etc (and other tech giants), so it's likely you haven't heard the dissenting opinions.
We live in a fascist country today, largely because of those tech giants. There is only one correct viewpoint. While we all admit that we don't have all the information, somehow many have come to the conclusion that there is only one possible answer. A strange contradiction.
First, I would like to see some numbers. Second, none of the restrictions in the US prohibit people from visiting a doctor for other reasons than Covid-19. And the fear that may be holding back some won't go away by lifting the restrictions. On the contrary, the rate of new cases will increase again and the perceived risk will become higher.
There are many sorts of ailments out there, alcoholism and drug abuse for example, both of which are up. There are stats out there on it, I'll find you one in a few. Point is, people are suffering and in some cases, even dying. At some point, this disease just won't be worth it, and I think we're almost there.
