The Price of Fear

The country is now beginning to open up economically, and all hope that things go well for the sake of the American people. What will that future look like?

Before trying to answer that question, let’s focus on the present for a moment. The mainstream media is all in to keep fear in the forefront of our thinking. In the beginning, it was fear of a disease we didn’t know anything about that would kill millions. Headlines quoted a worst-case scenario put together by epidemiologists, and the media joyfully ran with it. When that fear mongering had run its course, the media’s moved on to the lack of equipment and hospital space. Based on projections for the disease, those fears seemed to have merit, because world could not have been prepared for this pandemic.

In a historic show of unity, however, the American people came together and implemented the prescriptions given by the federal government. The people’s contribution to “flattening the curve” appears to have saved lives and our healthcare system, which would have been strained beyond its limits. Ultimately, the question will have to be answered, “what would have happened without stay at home? And what economic and personal price did America pay for taking on the Coronavirus in the way it did?”

Stage three of the media onslaught was creating fear about the opening. Headlines warning that “we’re not ready” have been seen everywhere, as soon as opening plans were announced. Now with states opening, the media has moved on to “there isn’t enough testing available.” Always something to fear.

I attribute most of the media behavior to the dislike of Trump intersecting with the election year. The Left will never get over the Trump election and its upset of the hoped for multi-generational Obama legacy. Trump Derangement Syndrome is now at its maximum level. The Left have spent four years attacking the president: Russian collusion (exposed as fake), Mueller investigation (inconclusive), impeachment (without merit), and now blame for the Coronavirus response. It’s the left who has the fear – fear of their weak candidate and an economic recovery before fall.

Let’s forget the media, for a moment, and concentrate on what we can conclude from our own observations about the pandemic.

It is a curse, but also blessing the pandemic is world-wide. Blessing because we have 210 laboratories (countries) doing the same experiment we’re doing. In the United States, there are 50 states acting as independent laboratories, each tackling a unique set of circumstances. The advantage of this large number is they are all developing different approaches, which will make plain for us what strategies work.

There is no logic too staying closed, given that you can open up carefully by geography and demographics. In fact, our states can’t open at the same time, anyway, because some have been hit harder by the disease and/or started late in an effort to control it. Moving forward, we will observe how these openings progress and adjust along the way. I’m betting on this being successful because I see the American people continuing their recent good behavior into the open because they understand the cost of failure.

This is the classic scientific method; performing experiments to discover the right path forward. Experimentation is the tool that has brought mankind to this point in history. All of the products and technologies we enjoy were developed through scientific experimentation. How many plane crashes occurred before the first successful flight?

As we accumulate information about the disease, there are facts emerging that improve our understanding of the disease. Antibody testing has shown there are a significant number of people who have had the disease previously and were cured on their own (in New York City 15%). This lowers the death rate (same death count/more cases), which make the disease appear less dangerous than first thought. We can’t protect everyone from infection because the disease will eventually reach everyone, but we have to keep the most vulnerable safe until a vaccine can be developed.

Its interesting to observe what is happening in Sweden. Their curve is flattening without stay at home orders. The entire Swedish economy is open albeit with social distancing in place. Shouldn’t we see their experience as a confidence builder for our own? Sweden is using the “herd” model to deal with the virus; let it spread through the population normally until everyone has been exposed.

Our future looks good. The impact on the economy will last awhile, but unlike 2008, there is no underlying cause for alarm. Remove the disease and the economy bounces back.

To be honest, we can’t say that the media alone caused our reaction to the disease. Our media doesn’t exist in the other 209 countries fighting it. There must be something about this time in history that has made us susceptible to the fear we have been experiencing. The media has, for its part, made matters worse in their zeal to define the truth, as opposed to just telling it.