Issues & Insights
Source: U.S. Army

When Did ‘Flatten The Curve’ Become ‘We Reserve The Right To Panic’?

I&I Editorial

It was some time in an entirely different age, more than a full season removed from today, that we were told we had to shut down most of America to flatten the curve of coronavirus infections. Now it seems that is no longer good enough. So the suffering will continue, but not the sort that government officials are warning us about.

“If you look at the curves of outbreaks, they go big peaks, and then come down. What we need to do is flatten that down,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in early March, just before the lockdown cascade began.

Within days, Kaiser Health News reported that “such steps will help mitigate a surge in cases that could overwhelm the hospital system.” At roughly the same time, Drew Harris, a Thomas Jefferson University population health researcher, told National Public Radio that delaying the spread of new cases of coronavirus over the course of weeks or months was needed so the health care system could “adjust and accommodate all the people who are possibly going to get sick and possibly need hospital care.”

Eventually, after a grueling three months in which the economy was pitched over the side as if it were useless cargo to get rid of in a raging storm, our elected officials began lifting restrictions. But now we’re being threatened again with closures.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has already re-closed bars and nightclubs in seven counties, is threatening to use a “dimmer switch” on the flickering economy, and says “I am committed to intervening,” which means “augmenting the orders and advancing even more restrictive ones.”

Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who was an early “reopener,” has ordered bars closed across the state. Florida, also among the first states to lift restrictions, has “rolled back” its reopening.

Other states are also slow-walking their returns to normalcy.

The media as one would expect are cheerleading a reclosure campaign with daily headlines screaming about spiking, soaring, and surging cases across the country. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, favors a federal mask mandate, and Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, says he will require all Americans to wear masks if he’s elected. They say their position is based on “science,” but the objective is to create a climate of fear.

It’s true that coronavirus infections continue to increase in the U.S. But while they’ve been growing, daily deaths have been falling.

Yes, deaths are a lagging indicator. Maybe the death spike is coming. Driven-mad-by-spite Paul Krugman seems to looking forward to one. But there’s no way to know this. It’s been made clear the experts can’t accurately predict the future.

Let’s say this time will be different, though, that deaths won’t follow cases. Why would that be? One answer, and maybe the only one that matters, can be found in looking at who is being infected. It’s not senior citizens fueling the numbers. In Florida, for instance, those 25 to 34 are “by far,” says Gov. Ron DeSantis, the leading age group in testing positive. In Texas, positive tests in the 20-29 age group have been skewing the numbers.

Why is this important? Because the risk in the young is low.

In May, “the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that the risk of death for people with COVID-19 symptoms is just 0.05% among patients younger than 50,” says Reason’s Jacob Sullum. “That risk rises to 0.2% among 50-to-64-year-olds and 1.3% among people 65 or older.”

Florida pediatrician Dr. Jason Foland says most 30- and 40-year-olds “don’t actually have very bad symptoms – it’s just like the common cold.”

The U.S. flattened the curve in April. And even though, as the Miami Herald is telling us, “younger, less sick coronavirus patients (are) surging through hospitals,” Miami-Dade hospitals have reported “far more beds available than beds filled with COVID patients.” Officials in Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth are also saying they have sufficient hospital capacity. Conditions in Los Angeles are tighter, but the county is still two to three weeks from running out of hospital beds.

Also being left out of what has been called “Lockdown 2.0” is the possibility that the virus is growing weaker. This is not our hope but the opinions of a number of physicians, among them Dr. Donald Yealy of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who has said “we need to change our mindset and focus not exclusively on the number of cases, but on the severity of illness. We shouldn’t just be counting those who have a diagnosed infection. For the vast majority of people testing positive, their illness is mild, or they don’t even know they have any symptoms of COVID-19 infection.”

But better to err on the safe side, right? Well, we’ve tried that and the results indicate the lockdowns weren’t justified.

Decisions based on fear of the unknown are often the wrong choices. We hope governors and mayors who are considering another month, or two, or three, of the grind we’re just beginning to emerge from will look at latest data and go forward rather than backward. Of course we continue to cover the most vulnerable, and we keep practicing the protective habits we’ve formed. But we can’t make the same mistake twice in a little more than 100 days.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board

We Could Use Your Help

Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day -- without fear or favor.

We’re doing this on a voluntary basis because we believe in a free press, and because we aren't afraid to tell the truth, even if it means being targeted by the left. Revenue from ads on the site help, but your support will truly make a difference in keeping our mission going. If you like what you see, feel free to visit our Donations Page by clicking here. And be sure to tell your friends!

You can also subscribe to I&I: It's free!

Just enter your email address below to get started.

Share

I & I Editorial Board

The Issues and Insights Editorial Board has decades of experience in journalism, commentary and public policy.

13 comments

  • I don’t know how to show the curves, but on Worldometer if you look at New York you will see that they did not flatten the curve. It rises in a logistic rise, peaks and then falls in a logistic decay.
    Florida, Texas and California do not. They start in a logistic curve, then flatten out until the reopening and now are resuming the logistics curve.

  • I maintain if you are not in the “at risk” categories, you want to get the virus now…in the summer. We should be pushing for herd immunity at a time when there is less chance for death.

    • The latent after-effects of this disease on all organs will be the seminal description of this malady.

      We are really stupid of we do not lock down now.

      • I’d like for you to present your medical degree to this site so we can all benefit from your years of expertise on disease control.

  • I thought this was the purpose of “flattening the curve”…..postponing the influx of cases we all knew was coming. That is where we are at right now. Younger people are getting it, getting over it and creating herd immunity as the virus continues to weaken.

    This is how you destroy a virus….not hiding under your bed like the Uni-Party in DC wants you to do. Really growing tired of the do nothing GOP…..Rand Paul is the only one in Washington with a spine….and a brain.

  • we only know of one thing that controls this virus, and that is a hard lock down.
    No one has yet proven that you can open up if there is still virus in your population.

    If you don’t get that, you need to collectively start paying attention to the facts in the matter.

    • You are insane to think we could have a hard lock down for 12-18 months. Not even arguing the science- just the reality. We have a mutiny after 3 months. Are you going to arrest people if they disobeyed the hard lock down? What about all of the other real terrible consequences associated with hard locks downs- delayed medical care, mental health issues, drug/alcohol abuse, spousal and child abuse, etc. Then add in a beyond devastating economic depression that will kill people and starve the country of the resources it needs to manage the rest of society. Your “cure” is so much worse than the virus.

    • Actually, the data do not suggest that the level of lockdown a community or state enacted affects the death toll from covid. Speaking of “facts that matter,” the death toll from covid has fallen consistently for weeks now. Younger people getting covid is not a big deal, they’re almost all able to fight it off easily, and they may be building herd immunity. The Left keep saying “look at the science” but then refuse to do so. Locking down again will simply continue this pattern for months on end, when in reality, the young should be getting covid-19 and creating a herd immunity barrier that may allow covid to burn out.

    • There was a Hard Lockdown in NY. They have a higher percentage of cases and deaths than anywhere in the country. I think, maybe, you are confusing facts with news reports.

  • Florida has not changed their plans – localities have made adjustments to their specific areas – DeSantis has made no changes at the state level of any significance.

  • A good article but it needs a small correction: UPMC stands for University of Pittsburgh Medical “CENTER” rather than “College.”

About Issues & Insights

Issues & Insights is run by the seasoned journalists behind the legendary IBD Editorials page. Our goal is to bring our decades of combined journalism experience to help readers understand the top issues of the day. We’re doing this on a voluntary basis, because we believe the nation needs the kind of cogent, rational, data-driven, fact-based commentary that we can provide. 

We Could Use Your Help

Help us fight for honesty in journalism and against the tyranny of the left. Issues & Insights is published by the editors of what once was Investor's Business Daily's award-winning opinion pages. If you like what you see, leave a donation by clicking on donate button above. You can also set up regular donations if you like. Ad revenue helps, but your support will truly make a difference. (Please note that we are not set up as a charitable organization, so donations aren't tax deductible.) Thank you!
Share
%d