Well, it is week 6 of the coronavirus pandemic. Much like the flowers this spring, my region is sprouting a variety of multicolored facial masks as its citizens browse in the limited number of venues that are open. In my occasional forays into retail space, I see people largely covering their faces and keeping a distance from other people.

I do feel positively like a rube behind my paper and elastic mask (it’s soooo early April) when I see the variety of reusable, fashionable face ware that people are sporting. I did order a rather dashing black mask for myself and my wife, but I’m afraid the delivery date from Amazon will probably be sometime in July.

In most places now the numbers are trending downward. Within our federal framework, some states are beginning to tentatively relax their restrictions. For some states, their numbers support this, while others such as Georgia, are taking a bigger risk.

So as fear and anxiety ebbs, and impatience and annoyance surges, here as some things I noticed this week.

Earlier this week I posted on Facebook, a link to an Epoch Times video on the likely genesis of the pandemic in the Wuhan Virology lab, rather than from the seafood market several hundred yards away. as I wrote earlier this week, Facebook basically disallowed the post claiming the whole premise as false. Turns out there is more and more support for this concept in the press, and many people I have spoken to accept to be true.

After some controversy, our county of Luzerne finally opened a coronavirus testing site. Testing at first was limited to essential workers and the elderly… with symptoms. To heighten the drama and add further inconvenience to our lives, the exit from route 81 was essentially shut down for any other traffic. The road in front of the arena was also blocked off while the testing site was open. This was apparently designed to discourage those getting tested from wandering off into the local Walmart.

The result: In the first week, 556 people were tested. Somewhere between 5% and 7% of these high risk, symptomatic individuals were COVID positive. This made me think. We have been categorizing suspicious cases without testing as COVID 19 deaths. These people were suspicious, having been screened and approved for testing. Perhaps we’re slightly overestimating?

In Europe, Germany has been reopening its economy and relaxing its lockdown. Apparently in the early going, the reproduction rate (the number of people infected by each current infection) has risen from 0.7 to 1.0. This bears watching.

 In Sweden, they continue to pursue a strategy of keeping society largely open with voluntary distancing, and self-isolation. This has led to a significantly higher death rate than the other Scandinavian countries. This is most obvious in comparison to Denmark, which actually has a higher population density.

Sweden’s situation is interesting. We have been told that the lockdown in the United States is all about flattening the curve so as not to overwhelm our medical system. Apparently, Sweden’s medical system is bearing up nicely even with a higher death rate per million population, than the US, Germany, and other Scandinavian countries.

There are those in Sweden that contend that they will likely have nearly the same total of infected patients and death as they would have with our plan. The process (along with herd immunity) will just occur more quickly. By the Swedish theory, the peak of the curve may be flattened in our country, but the total area under the curve (the number of sick people) will not have ultimately changed. Unfortunately, the economy will be devastated by the long-term shutdown.

I’m grateful that the governor opened some obvious, morale-boosting businesses and recreational opportunities. I am also glad to see construction restart once again.  

We do apparently believe that we can safely open certain retail businesses during the lockdown. Given this, the closure of others seems rather arbitrary, and as time goes on, cruel to the business and its workers. Masks and self-distancing work as well at Home Depot, as they would at Target. Warming weather may offer an opportunity for safe outdoor seating at bars and restaurants.

Now is the time for bold but prudent innovation to overcome this pandemic and all of its effects.

The time for fear and anxiety needs to be over.