A Positive Assessment of the Post-COVID-19 Future | Eastern NC Now

Publisher's note: The author of this post is Mitch Kokai for the John Locke Foundation.

    Bruce Thompson writes at the Washington Examiner that the future is not as bleak as media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic suggests.

• The daily news about the novel coronavirus is bad. Every day, we are told that the pandemic is out of control and that there is no end in sight. We read that the number of new cases is rising, deaths are climbing, and the United States has by far the most deaths of any country in the world. The economy is collapsing, unemployment is spiking, and a depression is coming. But experts warn us that reopening the economy will just mean more suffering and death.
• It is true that the pandemic's toll on our health and economic well-being has been devastating. But a review of public reports, statistics, and studies shows that the future is not as dire as we are being told by the national media.
• In fact, there is ample evidence that we are turning the corner on the virus and that the overwhelming majority of people are not at serious risk if they take commonsense precautions and follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. ...
• ... [T]he number of new cases is falling, even as testing has increased. The number of new cases per day in the U.S. has dropped to the 20,000 range, from a peak of 36,000 in April. Daily positive tests as a percentage of total daily tests are dropping, falling from more than 20% in April to a 6%-7% range this week. ...
• ... [W]hile the number of deaths we have had is appalling and continues to rise, the number of daily deaths is falling. From a seven-day moving average of more than 3,000 a day in April, the current seven-day average has dropped to 1,459 from May 8 to May 14.

    Follow Carolina Journal Online's continuing coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic HERE.