SO, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR SOLUTION TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC?

 James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© March 27, 2020

Since this is a hypothetical question, and since I have no power, I can explain what I would do cognitively, intuitively and counterintuively, as if I did, indeed, have that requisite authority to attack this situation on all sides and at all levels. 

First of all, I would not look for solutions.  I would put an army of epidemiologists to the epicenter of the disease to investigate and determine disease patterns, risk factors involved and the relative health of the people and their animals in that center.  This in the short term might best protect them against the disease if they don’t already have it. 

The cause of the disease cannot be the primary focus, but it might subsequently surface counterintuively by leaving the door open to such factors as circumstances, incidents and recent and long range history that might at first blush seemingly have nothing concrete to do with the problem. 

This would require tackling the disease from the other side of the tracks where intuitive speculation and creative thinking complement conventional strategies of statistical analysis, disease quantification, and critical thinking. 

Numbers are always attractive to assessors of pandemics but they only make the population more restless and unsettled as numbers only track what panic has invested in the enterprise.       

A pandemic is the equivalent of a world war.  That said, I would not shut down the nation or freeze frame people in the isolation of panic.  I would however suspend the rights to life, liberty, fraternity and equality temporarily in this Global War, which would require price controls so that there could be no gouging or exploitation of the situation. 

At the same time, I would turn the nation’s colleges, universities, and related industries into war effort assemblies dedicated to the war effort making the necessary supplies and medicines to detect, classify, and evaluate pockets where the pandemic is currently flourishing. 

Within these pockets I would take stratified random statistical samples of the population in terms of Personality Profiles; Geographic Profiles and Demographic Profiles to get a sense of the maturity, fitness, mental readiness, and history to determine the level and sophistication required of the intervention.

I would not throw tons of resources at the zone indiscriminately or beyond the current projected needs of the situation.  Nor would I lock down an entire city because one or two zones are mini-epicenters until it was clear what the need might be, something similar to what China did. 

Moreover, I would turn the construction industry into a national army to build hospitals, clinics, quarantine facilities posthaste to isolate and treat those most suffering.

There would also be national rationing draconically enforced with violators sent to jail immediately without due process.  Hoarding in war is a criminal offense.

The national media at all levels: electronic, television, radio, assembly, in print either books, newspapers, magazines, handouts, or leaflets would be subject to judicious guidelines.  These media would be sanctioned similar to what happened in the United States in World War Two when media got into trouble when perceived to be “giving comfort to the enemy” by exploiting the vulnerable emotional climate of the times. 

To prevent the possibility that the nation might run out of food, fuel, clothing, medication, or health providers, I would encourage homeowners to tear up their pristine lawns and plant victory gardens, limit the amount of gasoline that could be purchased for nonessential jobs, turn homes into making clothes for the family from materials available, while policing the pharmaceutical industry so that it did not exploit the public by manufacturing only the most profitable drugs at the expense of those required for the pandemic, while accelerating the education of medical professionals to be available throughout the United States to apply their skills to the needy.

And finally, I would limit network and cable news reporting to what citizens can and should do during this challenging period, while limiting national press conferences to succinct broadcasts of what experts would have citizens do, putting a lid on politicians who seemingly cannot help themselves from fanning the flames of dissension and confusion. 

These politicians seemingly cannot escape from dangerous judgments, discriminating policies, or abortive suggestions. The complacent arrogance of politicians prevents them from seeing the extent of their failure until failure is everyone’s problem.  Even so, they continue to lament what is wrong, who is wrong, and why they are martyrs like peacocks in the wind standing helpless in the eye of the storm.

We will get beyond this, one day, but there is no guarantee learning will have taken place even though Western thinking has once again been shown to be inadequate bordering on dangerous to deal with this pandemic.  We are a complacent self-indulgent society and although my recommendations are a bit draconian they cannot or will not change the national mindset.