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Voltaire has been quoted as saying, "The perfect is the enemy of the good."

Why do I open with this quote? Because I think it is necessary to remember this quote when trying to analyze the quality of the coronavirus past, present and future responses and actions. No one has done perfect but there has been a lot of good.

People have complained that the Trump administration did away with the office of Global Pandemics. Others argue that is was folded into another branch of Homeland Security. Either way, what difference, in the long run, did having it or not make considering the rapidity of this pandemic? What would have been done differently, if anything?

China lied and didn't share what was necessary for the rest of the world to take appropriate and early action (assuming the world would have any action earlier even if they knew all the facts earlier). Other similar infections seemed to be similar and were self-limited (SARS, MERS, H1N1, Ebola) and didn't require a worldwide shut down before disappearing.

The Chinese Wuhan city and Hubei province were locked down on Jan. 23 due to the rapidly spreading virus. One week later, President Trump imposed a travel ban for those coming from China. He was severely criticized at the time. Would anyone now think he was wrong? He quickly also imposed other travel bans from areas of the world that had coronavirus infections. Bold moves that may have saved the United States from quickly becoming overwhelmed with newly infected people because they caught it from international travelers.

Thousands and tens of thousands in China, South Korea and Italy were being tested for the coronavirus. I've yet to understand how and where they got all these testing kits so rapidly for testing a brand-new virus. The U.S. is being criticized for not having this immediate testing ability. I'm not sure where the holdup was but again, so what? With so few Americans having the virus because we were protected from foreign visitors with infections, we essentially lost nothing in the way of safety for not immediately being able to test people. Since the only therapy was quarantine and since almost no one at the time had the virus, not having the testing kits changed nothing. Now that we have the kits and time has passed, we are seeing the numbers go up and taking necessary precautions and actions.

So, what are the necessary precautions and actions? The same exact things we should have been doing for all viruses such as the flu. Wash your hands frequently, avoid sick people, if you're sick stay home. Viruses pass people to people. If you're not around people, you don't get it or pass it on. Now the federal government and some states have made the above recommendations either mandatory or strong suggestions. I anticipate these actions along with warmer weather (flu disappears beginning around this time of the year) will dramatically and quickly decrease the number of new cases over the next few weeks. Also, if the new treatment with hydroxychloroquine and Zithromax proves to be effective, the death rate from this virus will dramatically decrease and this will immediately help people become less fearful of this virus.

In the future, some will argue that these draconian measures taken against the virus were unnecessary. Since so few people in the United States died of the disease (compared to the tens of thousands that die yearly of influenza), that the government's response to the virus was excessive and needlessly caused a financial implosion (recession or a depression). And it is possible they are correct. Yet, the smartest and most respected medical minds in this country and others forecast that if these measures had not been implemented, millions here and abroad could have died. We may never know who was right but I personally would side on saving humanity and people.

And finally, the U.S. government is trying everything they know to financially stabilize the economy due to this massive economic shutdown. Hopefully what they are doing and trying will be correct and sufficient.

I doubt if everything that has been done is 100% correct or even beneficial. I don't know what else could have realistically been done that would have made a difference. But as I started this opinion piece, "Don't Let The Perfect Be The Enemy Of The Good."

Dr. Jack Sternberg is a retired oncologist and past chairman of the Garland County TEA Party.

Editorial on 03/27/2020

Print Headline: 'Perfect is the enemy of the good'

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COLUMN: 'Perfect is the enemy of the good' - Hot Springs Sentinel