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How should we prepare for coronavirus?
by Richard Ober Hammer
March 12, 2020

Reports of the high transmissibility of this virus suggest that our efforts to contain its spread will probably ultimately fail. As such during the next year or so most of us will be exposed to this disease and many of us will get sick — in spite of efforts to stop its spread.

If that is the case then we should accept it. Licensed professionals (doctors and nurses) and licensed facilities (hospitals) may be overwhelmed, leaving many of us sick at home and reliant upon the best care we can get from our families or ad hoc support groups.

• Instead of imposing draconian restrictions on meeting and enterprise, we should be planning how we can provide nursing support to each other if such support is not available from professionals.
• Health care professionals could be preparing crash courses to teach us how to provide home nursing.
• Governments should be removing regulations which limit the availability of supplies, equipment, and neighbor-to-neighbor nursing.

Life will go on. We do not need to make it worse by trying to stop an incoming wave. Rather we should plan for all of us to work together to ride it out.