I have never felt more like Kevin Bacon in Animal House than I do right now. You remember the scene at the end of the movie after the parade when panic ensues and Kevin is standing there in his military uniform screaming “all is well, be calm!” I have often felt like people are not paying attention such as through the impeachment process or any one of Hillary Clinton’s illegal activities, but this coronavirus panic takes the cake. If you do not believe this is politically motivated then there is no hope for you. I have spent the better part of the last two weeks listening to as many ‘experts’ as I can as well as reading as much as I can, so I feel like what I'm about to tell you is truly consensus opinion as well as my own brilliant insight. Get ready to have some knowledge dropped on you.

There are a lot of things we know about the virus and some things that we do not know. Because it is a virus, we already have drugs that can stop or slow the growth of the virus in the human body. Clinical trials currently underway have proven that, it's just a matter of finding which one is most effective and then finding a drug that kills the virus.

Much like the flu or cold, people who have weakened immune systems are much more vulnerable. So if you are elderly, have a respiratory disease, or are otherwise in ill health, stay away from people. Practice the new fad term, social distancing. You do this when there is a flu outbreak anyway and we don't see the panic then that we see now.

How does the coronavirus spread? It is most commonly spread through particulates expelled after coughing or sneezing. Most infectious disease experts believe it is spread through large droplets not so much the smaller droplets. It appears that a three to four foot radius from someone who sneezes or coughs is where you are more likely than not to contract the virus.

You may have heard that the particulates can remain in the air for several hours or on some surfaces such as metal for up to three days. This is true; however, it does not appear that the virus can survive for more than 3 or 4 hours in those situations. Just because the virus can be detected does not mean it is contagious or alive.

Washing your hands and face with soap and water for 20 seconds will remove the virus from your skin. Washing with an alcohol-based gel will actually destroy the virus because the alcohol breaks down the cell wall. I wonder if that works internally through the consumption of alcohol?

Taking care of your immune system greatly increases your chances of not suffering significantly or dying from this virus. Get plenty of sleep; eat lots of fruits and vegetables that are rich in antioxidants; and get some exercise.

If you ever used the restrooms at the Buffalo Bar you are immune to the virus.

It appears this disease is seasonal much like the flu and the common cold. Those areas that are experiencing their summer or are near the equator are not experiencing the spread of this disease like those of us currently going through winter. Australia, South America, and Central America are not seeing the spread. Good news for you that want this disease to remain in the news so it will hurt your political opponents, that means they could experience the spreading of the disease when their winter begins.

Let’s get to some of the politicization of this situation. Many of you have listened to Dr. Anthony Fauci on any number of shows talking about the virus and how it spreads or how we can prevent it from spreading. Yesterday you begin hearing in the mainstream media that the coronavirus is 10 times more deadly than the flu. The left-wing media beat this ‘fact’ into the ground. Here is the rest of his explanation which puts things into a little different perspective. Worldwide .1% of people who get the flu die. Based upon current statistics which are skewed, 1% of people who get coronavirus die. That means there is a 99% recovery rate. That's not quite as scary as being 10 times more lethal.

From an economic standpoint we have seen significant decreases in the stock market which certainly do have an effect on our economy but not as much as people would have you believe. Unless you actually sell your stock you have not lost money. You have lost value but not money. Certainly there are sectors of our economy such as the airlines, the hotels, and the cruise industry that are suffering actual losses right now. Every major sports league has suspended their season or cancelled post season tournaments. This can cause them to lose income as it does for all of the other businesses that make money off of those games. But are the losses as big or as permanent as the media is telling you?

Every one of the major businesses such as the airlines and cruise ships, have business interruption insurance. Many of the ancillary businesses also have that insurance which replaces income lost due to circumstances just like this. If a business does not have it that is a decision they made for which they are going to suffer the consequences now.

Airlines and the cruise industry are waiving change fees and allowing passengers to reschedule at some point in the future often up to 12 months. That means the income they are losing now will be made up in part within the next 6 to 12 months. So it's a short-term disruption to cash flow and the opportunity cost of not having that money but it will likely not mean the destruction of an industry. Many people who were going to travel outside the country are changing their trips to stay in the United States. So domestically the impact of the coronavirus will not be as significant and some businesses like hotels and resorts in the United States will actually benefit from those travel plan changes.

Hourly employees who work for either the major sports leagues teams or work for example in the arenas and stadiums could have suffered wage loss. But just about every League owner has already said they will continue to pay their hourly employees as if they actually worked the games that were cancelled. Coupled with the stimulus package and the cut in payroll taxes, many of those people will not suffer any lost wages. Some of the stars of those sports leagues like Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers have donated money to help pay the people who would have suffered wage loss due to the canceled games. That is not surprising because every time something like this happens, Americans step up to help each other.

I think the biggest difficulty we are facing in this situation is the one that we face every day in trying to figure out what is really happening: there are too many people out there who stand to gain from taking a particular point of view or spreading, willfully and knowingly, misinformation. I listened to one infectious disease expert being interviewed by Joe Rogan on Tuesday; in the first 4 minutes of the interview he made no less than five statements that were factually incorrect and easily proven to be incorrect. That calls into question everything else he had to say during the rest of the 15 minute interview.

Social distancing has become the new buzzword telling us that we should stay away from large gatherings or people who might be infected. That includes not traveling to areas where the disease has spread quite rapidly. It also includes putting a travel ban on people wishing to come to the United States from those countries that are not dealing well with the coronavirus. Almost every medical expert has said that is a good idea. But Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives voted to pass a bill this week that would prevent or overturn any travel ban put in place by President Trump. The only reason to do that is political.

This disease is one of the least contagious and least deadly out of all the other diseases that we are told will kill us and wipe out the population every couple of years. I believe it was the H1N1 version of the bird flu that infected over 13,000,000 people worldwide and killed about 3,500,000. That does not mean we ignore this but it should give you reason to pause for a minute and wonder what is going on with all of the panic and constant coverage that we have not seen for any other similar pandemic. Whether it was SARS, MRSA, any version of the bird flu, the swine flu, the West Nile virus, or any of the other diseases we've seen over the past 20 years, there was never any coverage in the media to this extent.

As usual many people do not trust their own instincts or experience. You need to quit selling yourself short. Often because the stakes are so high, potentially, we tend to discount our own ability to analyze the information, put it into perspective, and make a rational decision. so my advice to you is to quit believing everything you hear and ignoring what you know. And quite buying toilet paper!