Managing the Viral Outcome

As the coronavirus runs its course and casualties mount, the authorities are becoming better able to manage its course through treatment and prognose an outcome. Any viral outbreak is a threat to public health, but particularly to those with weakened immune systems and those already teetering on death's doorstep from some other health challenge. It is unfortunate that so many are dying, but the circumstances must be kept in perspective. We all die. During the time of this outbreak, fewer people have actually died in the United States than during the same period from all causes during any of the last five years. The disease will run through its cycle, a final body count will be made, we'll take a close look at what we could have done better, and we'll move on. At this time next year, it will be but a memory that we don't think about very often. It came, we survived, we moved on. Other immediate concerns will occupy our attention.

Of greater concern at this juncture, something that is getting less media acknowledgment, is the potential indirect consequences of this outbreak and how it is going to change our lives and the world once it is over. For instance, what is the cost of the fear that the media is seeding in society? When people are fearful, when they fear for their lives, when they fear for their well-being, when they feel that they, their loved ones, their family members, and those they support are at risk, many may respond in violent ways. Riots can happen when people get hungry. When people get scared they riot, they loot, they burn, they do violence. Social upheaval is a very real possibility as a consequence of this virus.

So far there has been enough food to eat. So far the authorities are managing the situation so that people have not reacted with violence. But an economic implosion to some degree is inevitable. It is already apparent. Companies are closing; some will not reopen; people are losing their jobs. The effects of this are going to be felt for a very long time. When people lose employment, they don't just no longer have a job to go to. They don't just lose a salary. They lose all kinds of other things: social networks and a sense of purpose in the world. And when people lose this, when they lose their direction, when they lose income, when they lose their purpose, when they lose their sense of self-value, when they notice economic implosion going on around them, they can lose hope. If enough people lose enough, societal upheaval becomes more of a possibility. This is where the media and the authorities should be placing most of their concern.

As soon as is reasonably possible, we need to return to work and restore as much normalcy in our lives as we can. The longer things are shut down and people are restricted because of this outbreak, the greater the effects of the economic implosion and the greater the risk of societal upheaval through violent reaction.