Herd immunity plan

Coronavirus is here to stay and we are ignoring the rapid nature of viral spread through inadequate testing and response from our federal government. We have no idea how many cases there are, who has had it, where they have been, how long it has been here, and where we will be in the future. Our world health monitoring force through the federal government was depleted (thanks to our “genius” president), which probably could have at least better prepared our nation for this pandemic. We don’t have adequate testing, hospital beds, ventilators, but have a president that basically has lied to us about our “great” health department response.

As an ex-physician (two years retired after 30-plus years of practice) and current small farmer, I look to the only way our government is fighting this pandemic. It apparently hopes enough people get the illness to stop the spread with the unfortunate consequence of 1 to 2 percent of the infected population dying. It is relying on herd immunity, an unknown percentage of people (or animals) that contract the disease so that it no longer spreads across our nation. Maybe if enough people get the disease, herd immunity can delay the spread of Covid-19 until there are antiviral meds that can treat the illness, or a vaccine that may prevent it entirely.

So as Mom used to say, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” We are past the prevention (Thanks, Prez), and now dealing with the pound of cure.

ANDY CONNAUGHTON Vilonia