Late last year, COVID-19 exploded in the Hubei province of China, most probably from a wet market in Wuhan. Theories abound regarding the original source of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus including pangolins sold in the market or a shopper infected by collecting bat guano in a cave 500 miles from the market or by one of two virology labs within nine miles of the market. The initial human source will probably never be known.

Since then, an estimated eight million people worldwide have contracted COVID-19, which was at least a contributing factor in more than 450,000 deaths. The subsequent shutdowns have caused the world’s economies to grind close to a halt.

So what have we learned? In my opinion, we have learned (or rather, reaffirmed what we have suspected for some time) the following:

China
We have learned that the Communist Chinese government, whose Great Leap Forward led to 35 million deaths some 60 years ago, who rolled their tanks over protesters in Tiananmen Square 30 years ago, who for decades has engaged in currency manipulation and technology piracy, who put a million Uyghurs in re-education camps over the last five years, who allowed flights from Wuhan out of China but not within China this last December and who is currently wiping out any remaining civil rights for Hong Kong today – that government is not to be trusted. Propping up the economy and establishing monopolistic supply chains with such a nation cannot, by any rational stretch of the imagination, be considered prudent.

We should, instead, ensure that the manufacture of medical supplies is disbursed across the world, preferably in the US. We should increase the military budget to add additional Virginia-class submarines and to build up to a 355-ship naval force. We should support Japan, Taiwan and India as a counterbalance to China in Asia. We should have a concerted national effort to beef up cyber security.

Experts and their predictions
We have learned that the elite scientists worldwide, who enjoy unquestioned autonomy in their areas of expertise, are frequently poor predictors of human behavior. And because of this, their pronouncements and models are too often grossly inaccurate.

Up-to-the-minute counts and percentages are hardly helpful in zeroing in on the accuracy of the various models when the number of infected people are unknown, and the reporting of co-morbidities and the methods of determination and classification vary widely.

Their predictions of a “new normal”, while certainly new, are nowhere close to “normal”. It is not normal for people not to touch each other. It is not normal for children to stay 6 feet apart. It is not normal to breathe your own carbon dioxide. And so, policies that rely on adherence to this “new normal” are untenable.

The media and the public should examine the basis for the models, pronouncements and policies and question both the scientists and the politicians on the logical conclusions those examinations suggest.


Nature and humanity
We have learned that we are all very human. We live in a fallen world and while we should not stop advances in medical science, we should not ascribe to men the wisdom of God.

We likewise should not presume to have absolute control over nature. Any control we do have is understood to be limited and most likely temporary.

We should cut the decision makers some slack. However, in this democratic republic in which we live, we have a duty to hold those in charge accountable for their decisions.

So as the economies unfold and restrictions loosen, more people will catch the coronavirus. This is expected. It is even needed. We cannot expect any sort of herd immunity without it. We cannot even test vaccines without it.

Let’s chill and start evaluating this world rationally.