"Stay healthy. Be smart. Make sure that others in your orbit also are being smart."

Dov Fischer writes in part in the American Spectator,

...in the past month I have become intimately aware, from two colleagues on the East Coast, of situations where their respective early-20s sons contracted coronavirus. In both those cases, the boys almost died. Their symptoms were so severely devastating that each was hospitalized and rushed onto a ventilator. In both cases, after a week or so on the ventilator, they rebounded and now are “recovered.” In terms that the media will report forevermore, those two boys will be listed as yet two more examples that 20-year-olds have nothing to worry about; the virus is a piece of cake for them. On the data list of those who have been “infected,” those who have “recovered,” and those who have “died,” they will be listed happily as yet two more examples of young people who “recovered.” Piece of cake.

Know that, in both their cases — and in tens of thousands more — they now would be dead if they had not had immediate access to excellent medical care and to ventilators. If the country were to run short on ventilators, not only would total deaths increase but deaths among the “piece-of-cake” crowd also would multiply geometrically.

Thank G-d we have a wartime president and an immensely gifted and skilled vice president who was chosen for his character and capabilities, not based on which identity group was due for a payoff. Our country now is tasked with mass-producing more ventilators. During World War II our auto makers and civilian-aircraft manufacturers overnight had to retool and repurpose their assembly lines to build tanks and fighter aircraft instead. Now those kinds of plants are being repurposed to produce ventilators. We all know that cars have motors and pumps. The president invoked a wartime power, the Defense Production Act, but initially did not compel manufacturers to repurpose. Instead, the administration engaged in contract talks, negotiated give-and-take over the prices, and allowed the free enterprise process to play a bit. But when some of the negotiations went on too long, the president invoked the Act, and those corporations now have been coerced to make ventilators at whatever final price was established, a bit like an eminent-domain pricing.

...If you have kids at home, be safe with them — and be safe from them. Follow the advised hygienic procedures. Despite the filthy and despicable “Blame Trump/Never Trump” politics here in America, know that this China coronavirus is proceeding almost identically everywhere else in the world, except in Italy and Iran, which maintained uniquely expansive commercial and social contacts with China, and in Spain where government leaders initially did not take it seriously. The other day Hillary Clinton tweeted a snarky criticism of the president’s (excellent) handling of China Virus 19. As I recall — please correct me in the comments below if I am wrong — Hillary Clinton could not even protect the life of our American ambassador to Libya despite advance warning that trouble was looming on the anniversary of 9/11. As for Joe Biden’s efforts to criticize the president, every time he opens his mouth, whether to cough in his hand or otherwise to gaffe, he reminds us that we really would be facing national catastrophe now if he were anywhere near the White House.

The imperative is to act wisely to protect our lives and the lives of those whom we encounter. In time we will beat this as it runs its Phase One course, perhaps some herd immunity will develop, clinical tests may better hone in on proven treatments, and by then we not only may have enough ventilators and N95 respiratory masks to meet an ever-lessening demand, but someone may even report sighting a roll of toilet paper or a piece of paper towel.

Stay healthy. Be smart. Make sure that others in your orbit also are being smart.

Read more here.