Covid: Open or Close?

With a nod to Dostoevsky, although I am hardly an existentialist, I am writing to share some thoughts about the current state of affairs here and globally. Indeed, we are living in extraordinary times which, if nothing else, remind us that Mother Nature maintains the upper hand. At this moment, over 150 countries, essentially the entire globe, are either on lockdown or have been there

The culprit, Covid 19, has drawn comparisons to the deadly Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 which involved the infection of 500 million people and resulted in up to 50 million deaths. The Covid 19 virus is not as deadly as the Spanish Flu but it has had the effect of halting life as we know it.

It seems odd to me, perhaps out of a certain arrogance, that science cannot stop this epidemic. After all, over the past century or so, the world has seen the discovery of penicillin (no more polio), the emergence of DNA research and the invention of germ theory and vaccination by Pasteur. Not to mention such “tech” inventions as the atomic bomb, transistors, TV, i-phones and the world wide web.

But here we are and the already heated debate is this: should the U.S. and the world continue to remain locked down using distancing and home confinement to beat the virus and save the health care systems indefinitely? Or should it use a surgical approach which targets the elderly and other at risk populations and allow all others to go to work and prevent the destruction of the economy and millions of jobs?

Extraordinary political leadership will be necessary to balance the three major goals to be achieved: (1) saving as many lives as possible (2) protecting our hospital infrastructure from being overwhelmed by a crush of Covid 19 patients and (3) achieving the first 2 objectives without destroying the economy and with it millions of jobs.