Balance Is Needed in the Fight Against the Coronavirus

“Since there is no vaccine coming anytime soon, the only way to properly handle this pandemic at this time is to allow the population to develop natural immunity to it in a controlled manner that avoids overloading the healthcare system.”

Well, that blew up fast. What started as assurances that the coronavirus pandemic will be mild and transient has rapidly morphed into widespread lockdowns, panic, and shortages of everything from canned food to hand sanitizers and toilet paper. “We can beat this virus” is the refrain most often heard, along with platitudes such  as “We’re all in this together” and “Americans always persevere,” etc.

Here are some key facts necessary to understand what is happening today:

1. The SARS-CoV-2 virus cannot be “beaten.” No expert believes that is possible. This infection will spread everywhere and will only stop permanently when either (a) an effective vaccine is available, which is unlikely to happen for about another two years, or (b) enough people are infected and thereby immunized (i.e., herd immunity develops).

The important takeaway is that this virus is here to stay, even if it takes a break in the summertime. Like measles, influenza and other coronaviruses, it will probably never disappear. The acute phase of the current pandemic will eventually peter out, but the causative organism will likely continue to infect people every year as it mutates, much like other such viruses have before it. (Even widespread vaccination would not stop new viral variants from spreading again, as happens annually with influenza and the first SARS coronavirus that appeared in 2003 and still infects new victims every year.)

Messages in the news media (and on social media), exhorting people to “beat” this virus are pointless and misleading, causing many to believe that if they hunker down at home they can avoid ever acquiring COVID-19. This is not true. Infection is effectively unavoidable in the long run. We can delay it, not prevent it. You and everyone you know will probably be infected at some point with SARS-CoV-2, either this season or at some point in the future—and there’s a good chance you won’t even know it.