From gloom to doom and back again

"Let the fans into the baseball games. Let the fans into the football games. Let people worship in their churches. Let the people go shopping. Like I say, if it is inevitable we are all going to get it, let's start living our lives again. Not tomorrow - today."  

I swear, I am getting ready to quit reading the papers. Every day, there are stories of how this CCP Virus is going to rule the day. How before the "herd immunity" sets in, up to 70% of us will get it. And even though it is predicted to subside during the summer, it will come roaring back in the late fall and winter, accompanied by its sidekick, the common flu. The only way the panic merchants in the press say we can fight back is - to stay hunkered and bunkered in our basements.

I am a slow learner, so this is the part I don't understand. Right now, the "models" (as we know, are NEVER wrong), say that Minnesota will end up with hundreds of thousands infected and up to 25,000 dead before this "herd immunity" kicks in. Can't stop it, can't avoid it. So, if most of us are going to eventually get infected, let's "stick our finger down our throat", and get it over with. In other words, let's get back to normal. Kind of like we did during the Hong Kong flu of 1968. Somehow, we survived that one.

However, there is more to this story which we do not understand as yet. Like why when this virus hit South Korea and Japan so much sooner than it hit us, why are their numbers so low? Why are the numbers of sick and dead in Italy, Russia and the United States so much higher when the virus hit us over a month later? Why are the numbers in Tokyo, a larger city than NYC, so much lower than NYC? Tokyo has almost a million more people than NYC, yet the number of confirmed cases in Tokyo is about 5,000 with 155 dead. The numbers in NYC are catastrophic - almost 190,000 sickened with almost 20,000 dead. There is a missing piece to this puzzle.

By the way, as bad as NYC has been, the numbers are starting to come down. Even with the horrible death count that NYC has had, many of the people have had it with doing nothing. They want to open up the state again. Like now. New Jersey is the same way. Okay then - let's be real. Patriots and citizens in every state have had it with this "duck and cover". Time to get back to work. Time to open everything up. Why not "duck and cover" anymore (besides for the fact it is ruining the economy)? 2/3 of the recent cases in NYC have come from people who were not at work - they are people who were sequestered in their apartments or town homes.

Want to get to "herd immunity" quicker rather than later? Don't close down the state fair. I was saddened to see the ND state fair get cancelled. Let the fans into the baseball games. Let the fans into the football games. Let people worship in their churches. Let the people go shopping. Like I say, if it is inevitable we are all going to get it, let's start living our lives again. Not tomorrow - today.