Kerby Anderson

Two professors (one in the field of medicine and the other in the field of economics) explain why we will never eradicate the COVID virus. Although this should be obvious, they felt the need to write an essay to explain this and show the fallacy of many government policies.

Let’s first look at some of the countries that had the most extensive lockdowns. China had the most severe, even locking people into their homes and imposing a 40-day quarantine at gunpoint. New Zealand also had a very extensive lockdown with sharp restrictions on international travel, business closures, and even a prohibition about going outside. Australia banned international travel, closed schools, and engaged in a brutal suppression of protests. They had limited success, but the virus came back. So did the lockdowns.

The medical issue is easy to explain. We won’t be able to eradicate the COVID virus or any other coronavirus. “The lone human infectious disease we’ve deliberately eradicated is smallpox. The bacterium responsible for the Black Death, the 14^th-century outbreak of bubonic plague, is still with us, causing infections even in the US.”

On radio, I’ve tried to explain why we were able to eradicate smallpox but why we won’t be able to eradicate this virus. This coronavirus is also carried by animals. To eliminate it, we would have to rid ourselves of dogs, cats, bats, and other animals. And I might add that only 15 percent of the world’s population have received the vaccine.

We may not like hearing that we will have to live with the virus, but that is the reality, and our public policy needs to be based on that reality. A focused protection policy can help deal with the risks. But it is time to face the fact that a zero-COVID policy cannot be achieved.