Would a different approach to covid-19 be wise for the military?

Without a doubt this is nutty just thinking if this gets to a critical mass situation there is not enough gear or medical professionals to deal with this. Its a quarantine or get infected situation. Using the Diamond Princess as an example - most of them will survive.

However what about considering how that was handled - more or less forcing people to remain in in a contaminated environment. Feel that titters on the side of unethical.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/coronavirus-infections-keep-mounting-after-cruise-ship-fiasco-japan

I'm not going to freak out about this. I'm going to continue living my life. Ill let the professional's try to figure this one out. I will spend exactly zero seconds trying to determine what is best for mankind.

This is slow rolled - say .01% or .02% of troops at a giving time. For a troop strength of 1 million that 100-200 SM's. As well small number to measure the effect. Just thinking a managed approach would allow for better results as apposed to say having this spread uncontrolled and infecting 60% to 70% of our force.

SPC David S. - Are you wanting a "Captain Tripps" type of worldwide pandemic from "The Stand?" Because this is how you could get one. Purposefully exposing people to viruses is never a good idea. Yea, the flu shot is a live virus...but it's a well controlled virus. Same as other vaccines. But you are talking of purposefully exposing people to the actual virus. This is probably one of the most unethical and immoral things I have ever heard.

MSG (Join to see) - yes there are ethical considerations however that may be the case at some point down the road if this goes unchecked.

If there aren’t enough masks or ventilation machines available, what is an ethically defensible way to allocate them? Might it be ethically acceptable to remove one patient from a ventilator so another could use it? Should clinicians who are forced to make such choices be legally protected? And who should get priority access to vaccines if and when they become available?

Lets say US produces a vaccine not so easily mass produced who's getting the vaccine?

More or less 2% of people with diagnosed Covid-19 have died, and between 5% and 10% have required intensive care. But if even a small fraction of a very large number of infected people might benefit from critical care resources like mechanical ventilation or extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation to help them breathe, difficult triage decisions could be required. Just thinking if this gets to a critical mass point a control infection would mitigate some of the previous ethical consideration mentioned.

Its the old if you know that by killing one person thousands will live - however that ethical debate takes on a different meaning when you are the one in question.

True - however that's assuming its approved before all are infected or mutates to a new strand making a vaccine ineffective. On the flip side not sure I like the idea of getting an "investigational" drug either.

Mefloquine, developed by the U.S. Army at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the 1970s, was commercially introduced in 1989. The FDA ended up placing its strongest warning on mefloquine, saying the drug can cause ongoing or permanent neurological and psychiatric conditions, including dizziness, loss of balance, tinnitus, anxiety, depression, paranoia and hallucinations, even after discontinuing use.

Science is indeed the answer to the problem but I have concerns about pushing out a vaccine in such short order.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/03/10/army-signs-agreement-with-drug-giant-gilead-on-experimental-covid-19-treatment/

SPC David S. vaccines are easy to make now. We've already sequenced the DNA and are working on one that should be out soon.
As for mefloquine, it still worked and that's better than infecting people, some of whom will die. As for speed, if you infected 0,01% like you said, you would have to do that to the target population 10,000 times to hit everyone. That would be a long and expensive process. It's a thousand times cheaper to prevent an illness than treat it.