When you encounter a new situation, especially if it is negative or dangerous, you try to figure out how to deal with it by drawing upon past experience or similar situations. You then apply critical analysis to determine what is similar or dissimilar between your past experiences in the current situation and devise a plan that you hope will resolve your current predicament. That is the approach I have taken, along with many of you, to the current predicament in which we find ourselves.

With that approach in mind I have tried to compare this to other pandemics that have similar characteristics especially transmission of the virus between human beings. I have also tried to review the progression of past pandemics that have similar characteristics to the coronavirus over as many years as possible. One thing I will tell you is that it's difficult to get that information because after the initial outbreak, the CDC and other similar organizations tend to group all flu types into one category.

Looking at history as compiled by several organizations such as Johns Hopkins, MIT, and the CDC, and as reports from several medical and scientific community publications come on, I got a pretty good idea of the worst pandemics in history. It should not surprise you that various communicable diseases caused quite a few more deaths and infected a lot more people through the Middle Ages. In fact, there is not a mention of any type of pandemic among the worst in history until we reach #16 on the list which is most commonly the Spanish flu from the World War I time frame.

Looking at a more recent time frame you can talk about pandemics such as the bird flu , West Nile virus, SARS, and the swine flu. The swine flu, H1N1, in a one-year period from April of 2009 to April of 2010 infected 22,000,000 people and killed 4000 in the United States. Worldwide 60 million were infected and 151 thousand died, 80% of the deaths were in people over the age of 60.

What was interesting is that after the initial outbreak of these viral diseases that are more commonly lumped into the general category of flu, the number of cases decreased significantly in subsequent years. In no case, even going back to the Spanish flu, did infection or death rates even begin to approach the numbers realized during the initial outbreak. Why?

To say that we have developed vaccines or treatments is only part of the story because none of these vaccines completely eradicate or prevent people from getting the flu in any form. With one exception: that being the SARS mutation that first appeared in 2003 which has not made any reappearance since then. You can't deny that certain treatments and vaccination protocol help reduced to the number of infections or deaths but in some cases, we don't have a vaccination or treatment for specific strains of the flu or other viruses.

Using my critical thinking skills learned in public school before those institutions became indoctrination centers, I can do exactly what I said at the beginning of this column to see what each of these situations has in common. Pair that with the reading of medical opinions in various sources and you come to the answer of herd immunity. The idea that the human body, if healthy, can develop defenses against these viral infections that will generally protect them from becoming infected in the future. The human species has not survived over the Millenia for any other reason. It hasn't been until the last 100 years that we as a species have begun to figure out what caused these illnesses and developed effective treatments or identified preventative measures such as cleanliness or healthy immune systems.

I am not alone in formulating an opinion that dealing with the coronavirus should be done in a similar manner as we have faced all these other pandemics in history. Shelter those that are more susceptible to becoming infected and allow those that are healthy to continue living our lives as normally as possible. The way we have dealt with this version of the virus is going to prolong the amount of time it takes us to build the herd immunity. Anyone calling for us to continue sheltering or keeping businesses closed until we get a vaccine doesn't know history or doesn't care about it. If we were to take that approach with all viral infections, we would have long ago shut down the economy and put everyone under quarantine because of HIV.

Because some of the people that will read this don't think critically or logically, I'm forced to put out the disclaimer that says I do not want people to die just so I can live my life the way I want. No one deliberately wants people to die because of this pandemic but every day in your life that you have stepped out the door you have exposed to yourself to dozens of potential causes of death that could be brought to you by another human being. We did not survive as a species nor did you survive as an individual by living your life in fear. Rather, you stepped out and made a reasonable decision about how to keep yourself and your family as safe as possible while still doing the things that you deemed necessary or desirable. It's time to get back to that way of life.