DON'T KNOW

April 28, 2020, Tuesday

We know a few things about the Coronavirus. The DNA has been sequenced and the virus is related to other members of the Corona family. We know it is highly contagious and people can be asymptomatic and spread the disease without realizing it.

We can generalize about some things from observation, anecdotal evidence, and common sense. There seem to be a wide variety of symptoms. The virus is more lethal to older people and those with underlying health problems. Practicing isolation, physical distancing, wearing masks, and washing hands helps to slow the spread.

But there's a whole lot we don't know. How long will the virus spread? Are there any therapies that help recovery?  Can vaccines be developed to prevent infection? Once a person has recovered from Covid-19 are they immune from a repeat attack, and if so, for how long? Do we have enough data?What kinds of tests are reliable and how do we test enough people to make the data useful?

Scientists and public health experts are working hard to answer these questions. But it's going to take some time to come up with good answers, and we don't have a nationally coordinated effort.

No knowing is hard for most people. Some hunker down, and endure. Others become angry or unduly worried. Some refuse to believe the facts and feel unfairly punished by the restrictions that have been put in place. So they disregard them, putting themselves and all of us a risk. Some want to lift the restrictions in order to re-start the economy. Some want to be heroes and suggest all kinds of crazy cures, like injecting disinfectant into the lungs "to clean them out".

We're all in this together and the better we cooperate with each other, show compassion, and have patience, the sooner things will slowly start to get better. We'll probably never return to the "normal" we knew six months ago, but maybe we can make the new normal better in different ways.