One last comment on coronavirus.  I saw Bill Gates on TV last night complaining that President Trump is taking advice on COVID-19 from a pseudo-expert.  He was referring to Dr. Scott Atlas.  Mr. Gates has amassed one of the world’s great fortunes through the development of software, but that doesn’t qualify him as a medical expert nor as a judge of medical experts, real, quasi-, pseudo-, or otherwise.

Dr. Atlas is criticized by Mr. Gates and others (including Dr. Zeke Emmanuel, brother to Rahm) because he is thought to advocate “herd immunity”.  Herd immunity is not a position to be advocated or opposed.  It is a real-world effect that results from the spread of an infection through a population.  A person who is immune to a virus does not transmit it to others.  When sufficient numbers have achieved immunity, the ability of the virus to spread is reduced to the point that it is of limited danger even to those who are not immune.

The size of the portion of the population that is needed depends on how contagious the virus is.  Measles can spread if less than 95% of the population (the “herd”) is immune.  On the other hand, rubella (formerly “German” measles) can be stopped when 80% of the population is immune.  (Both percentages from Wikipedia.)

We don’t know how much of the population must be immune from COVID-19 to achieve “herd” immunity.  I have seen suggestions between 40% and 60%, but no one knows.  (Wikipedia says 60% to 75%.)

So, how does an individual achieve immunity?  One way is to become infected with COVID.  A second is to be born with T-cells that confer immunity.  The third way is to be vaccinated.

We don’t have a vaccine.  Most of us don’t have T-cell immunity.  So, the alternatives are (1) close as much as possible and wait for a vaccine or (2) open the economy back up while protecting the vulnerable.  If we adopted the second alternative, we would quarantine anyone with symptoms of the disease and ask anyone who is vulnerable to isolate.  The vulnerable are the elderly and those with co-morbidities.

That means letting everyone out to pursue happiness and economic gain as they will, to let freedom ring except for people who are ill with the disease or are in a vulnerable classification.

Remember, for those who are not elderly and do not have co-morbidities, the survival rate if they are infected with COVID-19 is in the neighborhood of 99%.  The survival rate is higher than that for the young, a bit lower as you approach 50.  Even for those in the vulnerable groups, it’s worth keeping in mind that most of the 5% or so of people so classified who die with COVID-19 infections in fact died of something else, or died of a combination of factors one of which was COVID-19.  So says the CDC.

This is not a matter of advocating for “herd immunity”.  It is a recognition that once we isolate the sick and the vulnerable, for the large majority of the population, the psychological, economic, and above all moral benefits that derive from living as free people in a self-governing society massively outweigh the risk of contracting an unpleasant but non-fatal illness.