CV Diary, Part 9: The only way this ends

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Wall Street and Main Street are out of sync, still, and we have a better place for big companies to spend their advertising dollars...
  

1. With all the talk about testing for the virus, the hard fact is that we won’t get this under control until we have a treatment. A vaccine might be a year away, but an effective treatment is possible in a few months. In the meantime, both the rules of contagion and the rules of prevention are not going to change, no matter what the politicians and meme-masters claim.
   
   
2. One of the biggest lies being bandied about these days is that this is an unprecedented event. That's absolutely not true, but we tend to think that way because it hasn’t happened to any of us in our lifetimes. On the other hand, it’s so much easier to ignore the lessons of the past if we pretend this never occurred before.
   
   
3. So many big companies are advertising their support for front-line workers who are taking the big risks to operate our healthcare system, and our nation, but it all rings hollow to me. Instead of spending $millions on these ad campaigns, perhaps it would be more productive to simply buy some protective gear and ship it to all those heroes you’re thanking. Anonymously, of course.
   
   
4. The disconnect between Main Street and Wall Street could not be more dramatic than in the past few weeks, as 26 million Americans applied for unemployment and the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared. Of course, Wall Street and Main Street haven’t been on the same page for a long, long time.
   
   
5. A friend was opining a while ago that this virus is no more dangerous than the seasonal flu and that there is no reason to adopt measures that will damage the economy. Now that we’ve seen 50,000 deaths—in spite of isolating more than half the people in this country—I am watching social media for his apology. Actually, that’s a lie. I don’t expect him to reconsider his views at all.
   
   
6. What exactly is the point of these protests against social distancing orders? Yep, it’s an inconvenience and, yep, it’s hurting the economy, but it’s not hurting the economy as much the disruption caused by a 30% increase in deaths per year in the United States. 
   
   
7. Nothing gives me more confidence for our future than the innovation and grit we’re seeing from average people in this crisis. Leadership at the top has been spotty, but innovation in the trenches has been great. People are coming up with new models for protective gear and respirators, research teams are developing dozens of tests and treatments on an accelerated schedule, and small business owners are re-purposing plants to produce whatever the market needs.
   
   
8. It’s the detours in life that make us more adaptable and, ultimately, more successful. Some detours are painful and some are fun, but they deliver lessons and skills that we carry through the rest of our lives. Sitting on the couch to save humanity is no exception.

 
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