As tens of thousands of Americans have been sickened by coronavirus over the past 10 days, most of the voices raising questions about its actual severity or the need for stringent social distancing measures have faded considerably.
Notice I said “most” of the voices. Because, well, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is still at it.
In an op-ed in USA Today over the weekend, Johnson makes the case that the costs of keeping the economy effectively shuttered as the country waits out the coronavirus is simply not worth it.
Here’s the core of his argument (bolding is mine):
“Imagine the potential psychological and human toll if this shutdown continues indefinitely, unemployment reaches 20% or higher, as some now predict, and we sink into a deep recession or depression….
“…In addition to the current human toll, future generations will be required to pick up that tab.
“Every premature death is a tragedy, but death is an unavoidable part of life. More than 2.8 million die each year — nearly 7,700 a day. The 2017-18 flu season was exceptionally bad, with 61,000 deaths attributed to it. Can you imagine the panic if those mortality statistics were attributed to a new virus and reported nonstop?”
Er, OK.
So, here’s the problem: It is true that death comes for all of us. And that some people – heck, many people – die before they get to the average American life expectancy (78.6 years old, if you’re wondering).
But there’s a massive difference between premature death from things like cancer or an accident and premature death from coronavirus. The former aren’t preventable. The latter (mostly) is.
Unless you are a frontline health care worker or have some other job that forces you to interact with people who either have the virus or may have been exposed to the virus, there is a good chance that simply by staying in and around your house you can not only keep yourself healthy but keep the virus from spreading in your community, town, city or state.
Johnson seems not to grasp that critical difference. He also doesn’t seem to see why his proposal to keep social distancing in place while also re-opening a bunch of the economy – “rather than announcing general shutdowns and drawing up lists of ‘essential’ business that can remain open, let’s draw up lists of ‘nonessential’ businesses that pose a risk for coronavirus spread,” he writes – simply won’t work.
Here’s how I know: We tried that! Up until two weeks ago, we were told by our elected leaders – President Donald Trump, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and others – that as long as we washed our hands a lot and generally stayed out of each other’s way, we would be fine.
On March 10, there were 1,000 coronavirus cases in the US. As of Tuesday morning – just three weeks later – there were more than 160,000. What Johnson is approaching doesn’t work. Period.
Then there’s the numbers side of Johnson’s argument. While we’ve been down this road with him before – when he said that coronavirus might only be deadly to 3.4% of the population (aka 11 million people) – we apparently need to go down it again.
Johnson argues in the op-ed that 2.8 million people die every year in the US and 61,000 died of the flu alone in 2017-2018. OK, sure. Now consider that the likes of Dr. Anthony Fauci are saying that deaths from coronavirus alone in the United States could be between 100,000 and 200,000 even if we continue with the current social distancing guidelines that are in place. And that Trump has said as recently as Sunday night that he has been shown models that 2.2 million Americans could die if social distancing guidelines are significantly slackened.
So even if we keep up the current social distancing practices, almost double the amount of people will die than who died in the worst flu season in modern history. If we relaxed those measures, we could see deaths in the millions from coronavirus alone.
There’s simply no way to justify a lessening of social distance principles when those stats are staring you in the face. Which makes what Johnson is doing strange at best and irresponsible at worst.