~3-5 min read
We must worship the experts. Trust them? Indeed we shall. Dictums from the experts are akin to verses from holy scripture. Their words are the lifeblood upon which humankind sustains itself. The experts are our Redeemers, and through them we are all saved. Any skepticism or denial of their pronouncements are the highest form of heresy and apostasy. Such impetuous impropriety is punishable by severe punishment or death! They must speak! Let them speak! Their silence would herald society’s ruin! We must not besmirch them! Oh Sacred Science, Hallowed Be Thy Name! Proclaim thy Wisdom Oh Holy Scientist, Oh Holy Statistician! Oh Venerable Purveyor of Earth’s Mysteries! Oh Blessed Examiner of the unseen! Deliver us from our base ignorance! We beg this of you! We are not worthy! Forgive us our lack of Reason!
In mid-March, the Imperial College London published a paper that tore the collective psyche of the globe asunder. The gloomy report warned the United States that if it did not take drastic measures to suppress the spread of the coronavirus, then 2.1 million US citizens would perish. The model used in the paper also predicted that over 80% of the U.S. population would contract the disease and that an “intensive intervention package will need to be maintained until a vaccine becomes available (potentially 18 months or more).” Around the same time, a model developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) projected that between 160 and 214 million people in the U.S. would be infected by CoVid-19, and that anywhere from 200,000 to 1.7 million people would die from the virus. The foreboding Imperial College document and the doomsday models circulated by the CDC strongly influenced and expedited the decision by the U.S. government to pursue unprecedented and previously unfathomable nationwide lockdowns.
The degree to which the aggressive disease suppression policies pursued by U.S. leadership have directly led to a successful reduction in infections and deaths from CoVid-19 is up for debate. What is not up for debate are the staggering and appalling costs of shutting down the country’s economic system. As of Easter, 17 million U.S. citizens have filed for unemployment, which is a modern-day record. Numerous small businesses around the country have been forced to shut down after going weeks without revenue or government assistance. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities across America have been commanded to shift their focus to combating the coronavirus, which has left patients who have other medical issues as secondary and tertiary concerns. This change has been devastating and even deadly for millions of people.
The exorbitant coronavirus relief spending by the federal government, which was already carrying $20 trillion in debt before the crisis took place, is bound to lead to bounce-back inflation that will cause the cost of living to skyrocket. Some economists have stated that an economic recession is in progress right now and that if the country does not regain its footing within the next few weeks, a depression is very possible. Contrary to what some folks are saying, an economic disaster is just as bad as a health disaster because significant pain, suffering, and death occur in both. The amount of damage that will be done by mass unemployment, despair, and general economic collapse is unthinkable. Social activists often harangue policymakers about the scourge of poverty in American society. How can those same people not be mortified by the harrowing prospect of a remarkably greater percentage of American citizens being stricken by the blight of destitution within the next year? Are the “experts” really making the right call?
In the next few sections of Part II of the Coronavirus Chronicles I will critically assess, and in many instances, resolutely excoriate, a number of their contentions.
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