The Providence Journal, April 10, 2020
Two years ago, 45 million Americans were infected with the seasonal flu. Some 900,000 of them needed to be hospitalized, and 80,000 of them died. As of Wednesday, the coronavirus had infected 400,000 Americans, and about 12,000 people had died. Just a little perspective.
You probably didn’t know this about the flu of 2017-2018, because the public health officials and political leaders didn’t label it a pandemic, and the news media didn’t turn it into a 24/7 Death Toll watch.
Worst of all, the resulting COVID-19 hysteria has produced the terrible shutdown and quarantine policies that will probably send our country’s economy, and the world’s, into a depression. The loss of jobs, incomes, homes and food will wreak far more havoc than the coronavirus ever could.
It didn’t have to be this way. Instead of targeting 100% of the U.S. population with the shutdown policies recommended by Doctors Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, they could have just targeted 20% of the U.S. population who are the most vulnerable to the novel virus.
Sensible social-distancing policies and shelter-in-place orders for older people and people with underlying medical conditions would have avoided the unprecedented, unproved and probably catastrophic economic outcome to come as a result of the shutdown policies.
The theory being used by public health officials and politicians to manage this outbreak is called The Hammer and the Dance. The hammer represents the strict and forceful shutdown policies, to be followed by the dance of an economic rebound. It is an ivory tower solution, and incredibly has been adopted by almost every single country in the world.
The Hammer is a good metaphor for the overkill this public health theory will cause. We don’t need a hammer, and in doing so we are going to shatter our economy and our whole way of life for years to come. The dance, if it comes at all, will likely be 10 years from now, as was the length of the last worldwide depression, nearly 90 years ago.
The coronavirus outbreak has been compared to 9/11, and certainly the resulting fear, hysteria and pandemonium that have followed both, are similar. The United States, and the world, are headed down a familiar path in lockstep and overkill.
They say that bad crimes lead to bad laws, and the same can be said for bad public tragedies leading to bad public policy.
In the years that followed 9/11 only a few individuals and countries dared to speak out against the War on Terrorism, and the cascade of bureaucracy and public policies, and endless wars, that followed in its wake and continue to this day.
The same is happening now, led by the pandemic lobby of expert scientists and like-minded politicians, and fueled by the news media.
Only two countries similar to the United States are taking a more sensible approach, and in effect, targeting 20% of the population instead of hammering the entire 100% of the country.
In marked difference to their neighboring European countries, Sweden and Holland have both kept their cities, towns and economies largely open, with sensible distancing policies. Both countries will serve as test cases for what should have been done, although at the moment, predictably, they are being criticized by the status quo pandemonium.
When your beaches are shut down, and people are arrested for playing golf, you can’t see your loved ones die, and your livelihood is taken away from you, perhaps it is time for a different kind of revolution. Perhaps, in the words written by Paddy Chayefsky and spoken by the character Howard Beale for the book and movie “Network,” “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
Chip Benson, an occasional contributor, has a house in East Matunuck.