A Massive Mistake?

          I’ve never known a time when I’ve felt so overwhelmed by the news. There are so many “just in” bombshell stories, it’s difficult to focus on one without feeling you’ve missed something important somewhere else.

          For conspiracy fanatics, there’s the Michael Flynn case’s dismissal by Attorney General William Barr who saw Flynn’s set-up not only as a gross abuse of power by the FBI, but also as clear evidence that the Deep State was attempting a coup against President Trump.

          On the related Russia collusion hoax, there’s the call for Chairman Schiff to resign his chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee after documents he refused to release for over a year now show that he was lying all along about having solid, tangible evidence of President Trump’s complicity.

          And for those who enjoy seeing Joe Biden squirm, there’s the glee at yet another witness coming forward to corroborate Tara Read’s story of sexual assault by the Democratic presidential candidate.

          Yet, all these stories must take a back seat to the on-going saga of the war against Covid-19. This war is being directed by a civilian chief executive who never went to a war college, while he surrounds himself with advisers who have been in previous conflicts, but never one of this magnitude.

          The war on the ground is being fought by 50 generals on vastly different terrain. Like the Union generals in the Civil War, a few are brilliant, some are mediocre, and too many are downright incompetent, most of whom are arrogant fools infatuated with the power of their office; they issue edicts that not only violate the supreme law of the land, they traduce critics even to the point of imprisonment.

          Meanwhile, those who are ultimately responsible for managing this conflict have been making decisions based on an inchoate science handicapped by faulty field intelligence. They are torn between two seemingly irreconcilable strategies: one that favors the health of our citizens versus one that wants to save the economy from ruin.

          The very natural human tendency is to preserve as many lives as possible even if we have to sacrifice the wellbeing of the economy while hoping that the damage is not permanent. But that may in the long run prove to be a massive mistake, a mistake committed not only by the United States, but by countries around the world that take their lead from us.

          Covid-19 is very contagious, but so is panic and hysteria. The United States has a better chance of surviving the effects of a total lockdown than a country that lacks the wealth and resources to prevent a plunge into extreme poverty and starvation.

          We need to reassess the effects of the lockdown, because the ultimate outcome of this strategy, if prolonged beyond reason, could be catastrophic. Or, to put it in grim terms, more people will die from the economic impact of the virus than from the virus itself.