May 18, 2020
Nobabies.net

Economist
letters@Economist.com
Sir:
Epidemic + globalism = pandemic.  I need to be tactful.  I had the second highest IQ in my Harvard Medical School class, which was the smartest class that had ever been admitted to what was then the number one medical school and remained so until it was superseded by Johns Hopkins, where I had been on the faculty.  I have practiced for over fifty years; it is rare for a doctor to live so long.  I also have a tremendous long-term memory and a prodigious attention span.  So, when I speak of health, you can afford to listen. 

The equation above is true, it has always been true and it will always be true.  It is simply biology and a couple of definitions.  You may be forgiven for not knowing it, although I cannot fathom how you did not.  Learn it now.

On the subject of pandemics, the Wuhan pandemic (The WHO gave us a word for the virus and a word for the disease, but oddly not for the pandemic, so I go with the obvious.)  Stopping it requires just a few measures:

  1. Seal all borders air tight.  Nothing enters but emails, and they must be, along with departing emails, in plain language and be public property.  Skulking and sneaking may be permitted within the border as permitted by law.
  2. Masks and eye protection for all.  Soap and water on everything like hands that have been exposed to a suspect object.  Don’t scrub the hands raw. 
  3. Adequate vitamin D for all.
  4. Testing for all.
  5. Contact tracing and appropriate isolation.
  6. Social distancing.
  7. Prophylactic hydrochloroquine or quercetin for all.
  8.  Early, immediate, treatment for any contact with symptoms or a positive test that has escaped prophylaxis.
  9. 40-day quarantine for anybody who has needed hospitalization.

Do that, and within days you will stop the pandemic in its tracks within the country EVEN IF THERE IS NO IMMUNITY POSSIBLE.  People get the infection again, and be it relapse or reinfection, it means there is almost surely no effective immunity.    

Notice, crucially, that none of these is incompatible with people doing business.  The global depression need not last.  In particular, each country needs to license people as consultants in how to start a business.  The workers are available.  The money has already been pumped into the economy.  Give tax breaks where there is sustainable resource use and sustainable environmental impact.  Every country must be self-sufficient.  Ok, some strategic resources will need to come in under the strictest screening, be they rare earth elements into rich countries or food into less lucky countries. 

We were lucky with MERS, SARS and Ebola.  But if we fail in our current duty, the day will come when our luck runs out. 

I am aware that your corporate charter requires you to espouse free trade.  But this is murderous and risks human extinction.  I am sure you can find legal cause to drop this madness.  Then you can turn your undeniable skills to helping with the new reality.

As I have read between your covers for many years, you put a premium on wealth generation.  ECONOMICS IS NOT ALL ABOUT WEALTH, YOU BLITHERING IDIOTS.  Everybody wants a basket of goods and services.  Economics is the study of how they get it.  In my basket, I want to live and die in Dixie.  I want a stable society undegraded by inputs from other societies and free of coercion by decisions made in other societies.  Oh, yes.  I’d like food and shelter as well, and free medical care so long as it does not mean pulling my plug at some age; obviously I have long since surpassed any age at which I can be expected to contribute to society, although I still do and will do much more after the Wuhan pandemic is over, if it is ever over.  In short, I’m just an ordinary guy with remarkable heath and abilities but no unusual values. 

So, hop to.  Fix your editorial policy to be in line with what you now know about biology.  STOP KILLING BABIES AND OTHER INNOCENTS.  Let’s see if we can have a nice world.

Sincerely,
M. Linton Herbert MD

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