We, Sen. Steve Erdman (LD47) and Sen. Steve Halloran (LD33), have received numerous emails, phone calls and text messages concerning the coronavirus. They are all very similar in nature. The details may change a little, but the message is usually the same: “If these restrictions continue, my business will close and never reopen.” Cattlemen and feedlot operators share with us their stories about not being able to sell their fattened cattle, and when they do get an offer, they usually lose more than $500 per head.

In this article we will share with you some revolutionary information about how to deal with viruses, including the coronavirus. This information will be difficult for many to accept, but it is the truth. We regret that fear and panic have directed our policies in the past, but a fundamental change is now needed in how we deal with the coronavirus. There is a way back to normalcy, but it does not include waiting for a vaccine, shutting down schools and businesses, and doling out another stimulus package.

We may, by the end of the year, look back and see that influenza has killed more people than COVID-19. While that fact remains to be seen, our nation’s leading experts on COVID-19 are beginning to say similar things. For instance, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stated last week, “Although one of the original models projected 100,000 to 200,000 deaths…those numbers are going to be downgraded.” The original models used by Dr. Fauci were flawed because they already had mitigation measures factored into them. To be sure, the Act Now model and the IHME model, which are both based on U.S. data, instead of overseas data, now predict the final death toll to be somewhere around 61,000 deaths.

Because these new U.S. models are downgrading the projected death toll, the question is now being asked about whether federal, state and local governments overreacted to the threat of the coronavirus. One such person is Alex Berenson, a Yale graduate and former pharmaceutical reporter for the New York Times. Before the new U.S. models were released last week, Berenson Tweeted, “This isn’t complicated. The models don’t work. The hospitals are empty. WHY ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT LOCKDOWNS?”

An early-on, more targeted approach to combating the coronavirus would have been a better approach for the country to take rather than the lockdowns that the current mitigation policy calls for. For instance, isolating those individuals who are most at risk, banning large gatherings, and concentrating our efforts on hot spots, such as New York City, are three things which could have been done while the rest of the country continued to go to work and school. Instead, the lockdowns have devastated our economy, set our students back, and made the cure worse than the disease.

The genie has now been let out of the bottle, and there is no way to get her back in. Another ardent critic of the current mitigation policy is Dr. Knutt Wittkowski, former head of the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design at the Rockefeller University in New York City. Dr. Wittkowski exposed the fact that both China and South Korea had already reached their peak numbers of cases before they began implementing their mitigation procedures. In effect, nature had already run its course before these two countries began their new mitigation policies.

Dr. Wittkowski said flattening the curve is the wrong way to defeat the coronavirus, because it only prolongs the inevitable. According to Dr. Wittkowski, “With all respiratory diseases, the only thing that stops the disease is herd immunity.” Dr. Wittkowski’s interview can found at: https://www.thecollegefix.com/epidemiologist-coronavirus-could-be-exterminated-if-lockdowns-were-lifted/.

Herd immunity is achieved by allowing those who are less vulnerable in society to interact with the disease. According to Dr. Wittkowski, approximately 80 percent of the population needs to come into contact with the virus before herd immunity can be achieved. The population as a whole must develop its own immunity to the coronavirus. Few of these individuals will ever experience symptoms worthy of hospitalization because they lack the preconditions for a serious illness. However, by keeping schools, hospitals and businesses open, but separating the elderly and those with certain medical conditions, herd immunity can be achieved and the coronavirus defeated in about four weeks. As Dr. Wittkowski said about the coronavirus, “… it will go on forever unless we let it go.”

We agree with Dr. Wittkowski’s analysis. The coronavirus will continue to spread across the country, despite our feeble attempts to try to contain it. Herd immunity is the only way to defeat COVID-19 once and for all. Moreover, the current mitigation policies have led to 13 percent unemployment, a 5,000 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a potential 40 percent drop in the GDP, and a two trillion dollar bailout package from the Federal Reserve. Ian Goldin, an economist with the New York Times warned us back on March 16 that the U.S. economy would never be able to survive the coronavirus, and he was right.

If Nebraska continues to operate within its current mitigation policy, civil unrest will eventually ensue. All life is sacred and valuable, but Nebraskans also need to re-open their businesses, go back to work, go back to school, and get the elective surgeries they need. What better time to get elective surgery and recuperate than while businesses are shut down? But, we cannot afford to go another day with this current failed policy. Historically, civilized societies have crumbled from failed economies, leaving them vulnerable to attack from enemies, but they did not dissipate from diseases. You may not agree with our analysis, but we believe this is the conversation we should now be having.