It’s time to stop following the science and start applying the science.

A virus is a constant. We don’t have any effective way to kill it or eradicate it. We can only boost one’s immunity by using a vaccine to help promote the creation of antibodies.

No one likes the COVID/flu comparisons, but like the flu vaccine, the COVID vaccine isn’t going to make it go away. COVID is here to stay. It’ll continue to evolve and mutate, and our bodies will continue to build immunities and adjust.

It may wane over time, or it may strengthen to the point where it inevitably kills us all. There’s no way to predict.

But one thing is clear: the spread is inevitable. It’s going to happen.

The choice is whether we want to slow the spread indefinitely or let it run its course.

Slowing the spread includes letting undetected diseases kill people due to people not getting routine checkups; killing countless jobs, livelihoods, and businesses by locking down the economy; never-ending mask use that affects human communication and introduces different harm and disease to those who wear multiple hours per day; putting hospitals out of business by leaving them empty; stunting the growth of a generation of kids by taking away facial expression and school socialization; subjecting people – especially children – to poor health and diabetes risk by shutting down school and recreational activities, and watching rising alcoholism, drug use, anxiety, stress, loneliness, domestic abuse, suicide, and other mental illness rise due to all of the above (to name a few).

Speeding up the spread means building up our collective immunity to reduce infection rate, and returning back to pre-COVID normal, while working to protect vulnerable seniors and those with pre-existing conditions, including lung disease, heart disease, and diabetes.

By speeding up the spread, we would be letting freedom do the work. Those who want to live their lives, aware of the risk, but undeterred from living a pre-COVID normal, would be allowed to do so. They can continue to get the most out of their lives, as they wish, and take responsibility for themselves. People could make those decisions knowing that nearly 95% of the most at-risk age cohort survives COVID.

Those who want to continue social distancing, mask-wearing, and staying indoors and out of school would be welcome to do so.

With everyone taking responsibility for how they want to proceed, it would no longer be up to the government, and society could go on as it did for those who wanted that, and with new restrictions for those who didn’t.

Were we to put it to a vote, my suspicion is we’d speed the spread and move on until the next thing hits. We’re all going to die of something. That’s just reality. There’s no award for not living life to its fullest just so you can say you didn’t die of COVID.