If We Want to Return to Normal, We Have to Fix the Policy (Part 3)
So what do we do?
We start by allowing the younger, low-risk people to go back to work. (Older and infirm people should take the recommended precautions of self isolating as much as possible.) That allows the economy to restart while the virus spreads among a segment of the population that is least likely to die. If you’re under 40, your chances of dying are near zero, so it shouldn’t be a huge concern.
Also, you open up restaurants, primary schools, parks and some retail shops while–at the same time–monitoring the rate of new Covid-positive cases. If it looks like the health care system is going to be overwhelmed, you pull back by implementing new guidelines and restrictions on public activities and get-togethers. You don’t just send everyone back to work on Day 1 announcing “The coast is clear”. The coast is not clear and it’s not going be clear for quite a while, but at least the new policy will get us to where we want to go eventually. And that’s the point, because if we don’t chart a new course, we’re definitely not going to reach our destination.
What we need is immunity, which comes through human interaction. An infected person passes the infection along to a healthy person who develops the antibodies to fight the virus now and in the future. When the majority of the population develop these antibodies, they achieve “herd immunity” which is “a form of protection from infectious disease that occurs when a large percentage of a population has become immune through previous infections.”
Sweden’s ‘controlled spread of the virus’ has put them just weeks away from herd immunity, at which point they won’t have to worry as much about future outbreaks. They won’t have to shut down their economy, lay off millions of workers, or run up trillions of dollars of debts. Their people will have the antibodies they need to fight off future infections. They can safely return to normal.
The US needs a similar policy that takes into consideration our demographics, geography and culture. It’ll be a challenge, but can be done, and it MUST be done. The lockdown policy is idiotic, it does not move us in a positive direction. Young people are not going to develop immunity by lying on the sofa watching daytime TV. Nor will they build up antibodies by bolting the door and waiting for Uncle Sam to give them a thumbs-up. It doesn’t work that way. There needs to be a controlled spread of the virus. That’s the only way to achieve herd immunity, and that’s the only way to get out of this mess.
The only alternative is to hang-around for two years waiting for Bill Gates and the vaccine posse to save us after we’ve crashed the economy, devoured the seed corn, and turned the entire country into a gigantic-sprawling homeless camp.
The choice is ours.
- Source : Mike Whitney
