If the United States government, the sundry State governments, and the sundry county and local governments had done NOTHING–and I mean nothing, not one single solitary thing–we would have finished with this pandemic back in August, the way Sweden did, and everything would be back to normal.
We would have had some bad periods. May and June might have been pretty bad. Perhaps a hundred thousand people might have REALLY died of COVID-19. Legit. The number that will eventually die of it in any event, but vastly less than the number of people who will die of causes related to the lockdowns over the next five years.
But to say that if the government had done nothing, that nothing would have been done, is to be stupid in that peculiar way which characterizes all Leftists.
People who were scared would have stayed home. Most nursing homes would have developed strict access policies. Hospitals would have shuffled their business around to make room for more patients, if they came. Schools, each in their own way, would have changed things, some a little, some a lot, some not at all.
And we would have TALKED about all this. We would have compared notes. We would have had forums where Best Practices were discussed. HCQ and early treatment would have been identified early on as major palliatives.
In my view, in the end, HALF as many people would have died as we are being told died “of COVID”, and we would be DONE.
It remains true, by and large, that as Reagan said “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help” are among the scariest words in the English language. I continue to think of Bob Hoskins and “Central Services” in Brazil. Here is the first visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B61_5sRoBI [take a moment and enjoy and experience the cognitive dissonance of completely inaccurate subtitles. Everything is food.]