Warning System
The news headlines are veering more and more to future Coronabeer outbreaks. This tells me: the current crisis is passing. If there's not enough current bad news to keep readers engaged (scared), the media needs to focus on future bad news.
The thing they're focusing on: the virus will probably come back in the fall and winter.
I don't believe them.
I think it might; I think it might not. The only thing I know for sure is that the experts have swung and missed way too many times with this thing.
A few samples:
We need legally-enforced lockdowns. But Sweden didn't and the results haven't been bad.
Michael Osterholm, an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology, went on the Joe Rogan Experience and said warmer months probably wouldn't reduce the spread of Corona. Now everyone seems to be saying it will.
We were told that, once you have it, you're safe. That now doesn't appear to be true.
We were told to social distance by three feet, then six. Now we're told the infectious particles can travel 20+ feet.
The list of wrong information from the experts goes on and on and on.
So what do we do?
I honestly don't know, but I would suggest that drastic measures like mandatory shutdowns aren't the answer. Let's face it: the experts don't know when this thing will return or how it will return or what it will look like when it returns. If the experts don't know, on what grounds does the government shut down the economy and our rights?
And on top of that, even if the infectious disease experts understood Corona, the shutdowns have an impact on many other areas in which they have zero expertise: the economic effects; the psychological effects; the social effects; the education effects; the financial, physical, emotional, and spiritual effects on LeBron.
So here's my modest proposal: Implement a warning system like Homeland Security uses for terrorist threats.
Green: Virtually no risk of Corona.
Yellow: Some risk of Corona.
Orange: Higher risk and/or escalating risk of Corona.
Red: High risk.
Within each category, the experts would propose the proper responses by the populace. The government could use PSAs to encourage social distancing. If the alert is red, maybe they could throw chicken manure around to deter gatherings like a city in Sweden recently did.
In short, I can accept such measures, but the measures need to stop short of legal coercion. Now, I would like the government to stop short of legal coercion at all times, but with this thing, let's face it: the government has no idea what it's doing because the experts it relies on have no idea what's going on. Public policy these days requires experts to interpret specialized data. If the data or experts are incorrect, the public policy will be incorrect or, at best, a wild hunch that might prove correct.
Junk-in-junk-out.
