It sure feels better to be discussing the potential path out of this COVID-19 nightmare—in contrast to the last month of wondering when we could even talk about restarting the economy and our lives.

White House has a solid framework for what that plan looks like and we need that hope.

As we begin the inspiring and energizing road back to some semblance of normalcy, we better not lose sight of the hazards that can arise along the way.

Even as some businesses reopen, some folks should wait to return due to age or other vulnerabilities. Gloves, masks and social distancing gonna be with us for a good while more.  

And we absolutely need reliable widespread testing. 

We are on way out of this, but it’ll take every measure of our national resolve and our personal commitment to do it successfully.

But we can do this.

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The Coronavirus pandemic is awful. Nonetheless we should not miss that this event allows us the opportunity to take stock of our national health.

Here’s one angle. For decades, Americans have watched as uncritical globalism has shipped hometown jobs to overseas locales. Many hard-working people have lost employment, with many men struggling greatly. Opioids have filled the gap, leaving families ravaged in their wake.

Too long have we just watched these trends. Too long have our towns crumbled, our families pulled apart. Too long have we tolerated economic chaos to buy trinkets for a few dollars less. The social costs have been staggering.

A global economy bears many benefits to us all. But uncritical globalism has had major consequences. We need masks, for example, but depend upon a corrupt Chinese government for them. The irony is thick.

Now is a great time to imagine what a national reset could look like.

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We just passed the Passover and Easter Holiday weekends and I noticed something very interesting in the data published by the University of Washington.

It looks like the U.S. death rate from coronavirus peaked on April 10th, that is Passover and Good Friday. That day 2,077 people died, more than any other day before, and from there, daily death tolls look to be retreating.

Providence? Coincidence? You be the judge. But it certainly is poignant and spiritually powerful. Passover was the moment of peak death during the plagues on Egypt when Jews stayed at home together worshiping while the angel of death passed through the land. Good Friday was the peak death moment of human history, the hour of darkness before the turning of Easter and the defeating of death in the resurrection.

What an appropriate time for death to be on the retreat in our current struggle.

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The evidence that China covered up the early days of the novel coronavirus that has now left the world in great danger is overwhelming.

China has suffered a well-deserved loss of “soft power” and goodwill here in the US.

Most of us are now awake to the evils of this regime. But—as we respond—we need to be smart about it.

We don’t need to be concerned about cheap toys and consumer electronics.

We need to get hyper-focused on genuinely strategic industries—especially high tech and biotech/pharma. The way to stop the rise of China is to put maximum legal pressure on U.S. tech executives who look the other way while China steals the military technologies of the future: AI, quantum computing, 5g networks and advanced biotechnology.

We need to protect the intellectual property that drives the rise and fall of great powers, the cutting edge of technology.

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One lesson from the coronavirus crisis is that American rugged individualism is still alive.  While many wait for government to solve the problem, countless Americans are at work on it.

Perfume companies and distilleries retooled to make sanitizer, automakers manufacture ventilators, architects make face masks. Everything from education to funerals has reinvented.

Rugged individualism was prized on the Western frontier but is now attacked as selfish and out of date.  But when a crisis comes, we’re glad it’s there.

One misunderstanding about rugged individualism is that it stands against community, but just as pioneers traveled in wagon trains and built houses together, Americans today help one another with meals, hotel rooms, and groceries. Generosity abounds.

When the story of the Covid-19 crisis is written, rugged individualism should be a hero.

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This is David Davenport of the Hoover Institution for Townhall.com.

Some say authoritarian governments are better able to manage a crisis like coronavirus than a democracy.  But I say, not so fast.  

The Founders wisely provided for emergency powers when needed, and both the president and governors have used these.  We have institutions such as the Federal Reserve able to take quick action when needed.

But beyond that, our democracy depends on the virtue of the people.  Benjamin Franklin stated what the founders understood when he said, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.”  

The jury is still out on whether people get this.  We still have far too many people, especially young people, out and about, ignoring social distancing.  People are still hoarding sanitizer, masks, and toilet paper.  

Yes, we need everything medical science can bring to the table but, more than that, we need the American people to step up their sense of civic virtue.  

I’m David Davenport.

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At festive Passover celebrations, Jewish people traditionally ask: “Why is this night different from all other nights.” Well, this year, we’ll ask: “Why is this Passover different from all other Passovers?”

In place of Seder tables packed with family and friends, most of us will dine alone—sitting down only with those who share the same domicile. But Passover in a pandemic does call to mind an often-ignored aspect of the original Exodus story.

The Jewish people didn’t go from slavery to liberation the moment we left Egypt—first we trekked 50 days to Sinai to receive The Law, with 40 more wilderness years after that before entering the promised land.

Today’s Americans face weeks, even months, of continued disruption before resuming normal life. Celebrating Passover alone, my wife and I will recall that true liberation is never instantaneous, but part of a rough, tough, ennobling process.

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79 years ago, a man said this amidst global crisis:

“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never...”

Winston Churchill’s wise words capture the Western spirit. This is called “intransigence”—unyielding toughness.

But what about when our trials threaten to overwhelm us? When a pandemic attacks the globe, and panic seizes many?

Here we see that we see that we need more than toughness: we need hope. Combining the two, we need tough-minded hope.

But where is hope? When the headlines constantly shift and the nations rage, we feel tremendous instability. We need hope in something beyond us. We are not sufficient for these things.

This is Easter season. Here is where we find tremendous, surging hope: a man felled by death to atone for our sins was resurrected to life.

Death seems triumphant today. But death doesn’t have the last word.

Tough-minded hope—Easter hope, resurrection hope—does have the final word.

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36 states have COVID-19 death rates of 1 or less than 1 per 100,000.

According to the CDC, the overall death rate in America in 2018 was 724 per 100,000.

For influenza and pneumonia it was 15 per 100,000. Projecting COVID-19’s lethality rate is tricky because of the lack of a denominator on the infected. However, CDC guesstimates 25 to 50 percent of infected are asymptomatic. There’s a good chance lethality rates could be much lower than current reporting indicates.

Bristol University risk management professor Philip Thomas projects once mitigation efforts result in a GDP contraction of more than 6.84%-- more lives will be lost than saved. Studies of previous recessions suggest that for every 1 percent point increase in unemployment, the suicide rate increases by 1 per 100,000.

Given what we know about COVID-19 and about the lives economic ruin takes, is a prolonged shutdown the right call?

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A debate is raging among conservatives over our response to the coronavirus. On one hand you hear the point that the cure is going to be worse than the disease. On the other, we hear no price is too high to protect life.

One side is talking about thriving; the other, about surviving.

Of course, the sanctity of life is first, but this is a false choice. We can protect life without shutting down our entire economy.

How?

By making some commonsense distinctions based on risk and reward.

Think of a mosh pit at a night club … high risk, low reward. Our GDP gain almost nothing from it, but the virus gains a lot.

On the other hand, think about road or bridge construction. Lots of economic punch, low contagion risk.

President Trump should look in this direction. He should extend the principle of high and low risk reward zones to the broader economy as well.  

I’m Jerry Bowyer.

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