Now that it's becoming clearer that it may be impossible to stop covid-19 from spreading throughout the nation, perhaps it is time for us as a nation to start a discussion about whether it is worth it to throw our economy down the drain for years to come, in what may turn out to be a futile attempt to bring the spread of covid-19 to a complete halt at some point before everyone is vaccinated in mid-2021?

1) Just within the past two weeks, experts were predicting that nearly every American will get sick with covid-19 (or a mutated form of covid-19 (e.g., covid-20)) at some point in the next 2-3-4 years, because it is so highly contagious.

Q: If 1/3 to 1/2 of us are going to get it before we can be vaccinated, anyway, why ruin our nation's economic prospects for years to come in an attempt to stop it?

2) Even if all the preventive measures we're using and more are continued all the way through the summer, there will still be a few people with undetected cases of covid-19 on September 1st, and on November 1st, and next January 1st, and a year from now, and until everyone can be vaccinated.

Q: Since it's impossible to detect every case, and some undetected cases will be in the population, is there any point in trying to exterminate it now?

Q: Are we being unduly swept away by a wave of mass hysteria in our current response to the epidemic, considering that the mortality rate at this point in the U.S. is "only" ~ 1.8%?

Q: Instead of closing every restaurant and hunkering down and making all transportation "virtually impossible" for an indefinite period, as one expert predicted today on a major network, would it perhaps be better to leave the responsibility for preventing the illness up to each individual, each business, etc.?

The answers to these kinds of questions might seem obvious, given that a mortality rate of 1.8% in the U.S. population would amount to 5.94 deaths from covid-19. Maybe it should be obvious.

But it's clear that the nation can not afford to shut everything down for more than a couple of months, or possibly through the summer, and at some point, businesses will go under if they don't reopen.

Yes, everyone will no doubt be taking special precautions many months to come, perhaps over a year, until an effective covid-19 vaccine is developed and administered to everyone. However, if most of us are eventually going to get covid-19 (or covid-20 or covid-21) sooner or later anyways, the time may come when we will have to grapple with the dilemma of choosing between keeping everyone safe and ensuring an possible economic depression that could affect most Americans' future prosperity for many years or for decades to come.

Certainly, some measures, such as reduced air travel, will be kept in place at least until widespread vaccinations take place, because no one wants to see a death toll of over 5 million Americans due to covid-19.

Since the virus is so contagious and is now known to be spread through airborne contact, every American should and probably will get into the habit of wearing a snug face mask whenever they're indoors or in enclosed spaces with others until pretty much everyone is vaccinated. That should probably include everyone attending classes in the Fall, all those attending concerts, moview, and public events, everyone working in a shared office, and everyone taking public transportation. Perhaps, restaurants would have to shift to take-out only until everyone is vaccinated.

But the idea of shutting down all public transportation, all concerts, shows, and public events, all schools, and all businesses for over a year (i.e., until everyone is vaccinated) is probably not going to be tenable.

Given our individualistic nature, it seems likely that at some point, Americans in large numbers are probably going to get more and more upset and may eventually rebel if what they may consider to be excessive limitations are imposed on them for too long.

NOTE: Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading expert on the epidemic, was just quoted on CNN as stating that it will take "several weeks" or more to know if the measures taken to prevent the epidemic from spreading will work.

Since it's not even clear that these restrictive measures are going to be highly effective, while it is 100% clear that the measures will be more and more damaging to our economy the longer they are held in place, it may turn out to be likely that some intermediate path may end up being taken, such as allowing students to go to school in September if they're healthy, provided that they all wear masks and wash or sanitize their hands after each hour of class.

Zanny Minton Beddoes, the Editor in Chief of the prestigious Economist Magazine, suggested today on the Morning Joe program, hosted by former U.S. Congressman Joe Scarborough that the time may be approaching when a large number of people will have to go back to work in order to prevent a worldwide economic calamity.

The point being that shutting the entire world down would have adverse health consequences of its own. At some point, the cumulative risk to society of keeping the economies closed down will overwhelm the risk of contracting covid-19.

For example, many surgeries are not permitted now, but they can't be postponed for months and months on end, or health conditions will become so severe that people will die of untreated illnesses.

Crops need to be grown, harvested, packaged, and delivered. Medical supplies are urgently needed. Every job is an important job in some way, and not doing all the jobs that need to be done will deprive everyone of the most basic necessities.

Further, restaurants and businesses have already started to close their doors. Some of the damage will be irreversible.

Millions of Americans have no money in the bank and get by from month to month. People will start to become homeless within the next two to three months, and beyond. Many will be ruined, financially, by the massive losses in the stock market.

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Now - here's how we can do it. There are medical treatments that work. We need to get these treatments out to everyone.

The most effective drug is a common anti-malarial drug called chloroquine.

Enough chloroquine needs to be manufactured to treat every man, woman, and child in the entire world. This can be done, and it must be done quickly.

There is research suggesting that zinc pyrithione may also be beneficial, especially in combination with chloroquine which helps transport zinc into the virus and infected cells. The pyrithione also helps get the zinc into the virus and human cells.

We simply cannot hunker down forever. Yes, we've gotta do everything we can to socially distance, and yes - wear masks when in close quarters and take all other precautions.