OPINION:
If you think you are going to avoid the coronavirus by locking down and hiding under your bed, think again. The initial response of “flattening the curve” so that we would not exceed hospital intensive-care-unity capacity might have been a good idea — until we learned that ICU capacity is always maxed out because that is the way a hospital operates. There really is no excess capacity because of the huge associated revenue losses.
There is no statistical difference between the lockdown countries and the more liberal countries, such as Sweden. Either way the death rates are heading toward zero. The best thing that could happen is for young people to get exposed and develop immunity. That will protect the unhealthy among us and maintain a stable economy, which we all depend on.
Of course, there are countries, such as New Zealand, that went the total-lockdown, infection-tracing route — but they have only put off the inevitable. Fourteen percent of New Zealand’s economy is tourism. They either open up or end up in a perpetual depression. The increased infection rates are actually a good sign, not a bad one, and if you want a normal life in the future you should hope it continues. New Zealand is just putting off the inevitable.
SAMUEL BURKEEN
Reston, Va.
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