A few weeks ago, everything in the news was abut the Wuhan virus. Today? Has anyone in the last few days read or viewed a single story about the pandemic? As America has started to re-open, people have become less, fearful of the contagion. The mood of the country has been more upbeat. Maybe, just maybe, we’re past the worst and people can move on with their lives. then, an awful murder occurred in Minneapolis and things have changed. All across the country, in every major city, tens of thousands of people have been out protesting, in large crowds, and these protests have devolved into looting and destruction.

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Why can’t we just say, We have no idea rather than, the science says… I mean really during this Wuhan virus, how many different versions of “the science tells us” have we heard? Think about it. The virus isn’t transmissible between people (an early WRONG) to Masks won’t prevent you from contracting the virus (TRUE) and then just a few weeks later, Wear masks to avoid contracting the virus. Does social distancing work? Well, it seems to but then we have little data from past pandemics to show us that it indeed prevents anything.

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TOPSHOT – This handout illustration image obtained February 3, 2020, courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. – Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. A novel coronavirus virus was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. (Photo by Alissa ECKERT / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO /CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION/ALISSA ECKERT/HANDOUT ” – NO MARKETING – NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS (Photo by ALISSA ECKERT/Centers for Disease Control and /AFP via Getty Images)

As the country begins, slowly to reopen for business after what has been, in some areas of the country, devastating numbers of cases and death, it may be time for a look back to see if what we did, staying at home, social distancing, was any better for us than having a more targeted response. By that I mean, respond where large numbers of cases “pop-up”, get those under control. Would this have been a better way than placing more than 30 million people out of work – some businesses which may become shuttered forever? That is a question that cannot readily be answered, but what we can say is that what was implemented, in various ways, over the fifty states, probably didn’t work to the extent it was thought it would.

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Protests of the stay at home orders are growing, state by state, around the country. It’s not, in my opinion that people aren’t afraid of the Wuhan Virus, it’s that in some states draconian measures have been in place that won’t allow people to reasonably move about and to at least some extent, conduct their lives responsibly.  The other side of the protests though is the chance that there may be some in the crowd that are infected, but asymptomatic.  how do  we balance the safety of the public at large while allowing people at least a modicum of freedom of movement? It’s a careful balancing act, I believe.

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