We Know You’re Tired Of Bad Coronavirus News. Is There Any Reason For Optimism?

A few stories and interviews we encountered over the weekend show us where there might be some slivers of hope…

No doubt the next couple of weeks fending off the Coronavirus are going to be hard, but we did find a few bits of info that we felt encouraged by, or at least gave us a clearer picture of how we might get out of this thing.

Let’s quickly review the most interesting stuff we’ve come across so far, and then at the very bottom of this story we’ll give you links to the 3 most interesting stories (to us) about Coronavirus that we’ve come across so far. (And interestingly, two of them include interviews with epidemiologist Larry Brilliant. In fact, one is just an interview with him).

Why do we find these particular stories so interesting? Because they all mention a couple of unique things we hadn’t personally seen much coverage on and thus hadn’t focused in on before:

• That so-called “herd immunity” could be achieved more quickly than we’d imagined. (For that you’d need 70–80% of the population inoculated or cured).

With a couple of big “ifs”.

First, that some type of protocol is developed using some type of antiviral drug or drugs that work in delaying, lessening the severity of, or effectively treating the disease. Or even preventing infection in the first place.

Says Dr. Brilliant:

“I hold out hope that we get an antiviral for Covid-19 that is curative, but in addition is prophylactic.”

But before you get too excited, let’s bring you down to earth at least a little, because Dr. Brilliant also says:

“If this were a tennis match, I would say advantage virus right now.”

Trump thinks he’s already got that part locked down, and has been tossing around the names of an anti-malaria drug (that we’ve actually taken), and an antibiotic, that when taken in combination, he’s got a good “feeling” about. He’s not a doctor! Also, the anti-malaria drug — from what we understand — is no longer widely prescribed for that because it caused what the National Institutes of…