Stop fueling fear about COVID-19 so that South Carolina can thrive again | Opinion

Back in March our concerns about COVID-19 were driven by fears of worst-case scenarios: massive infection statistics, high mortality rates, overwhelmed hospital systems and extreme mortality rates.

Prevention was the goal — and the efforts launched sought to flatten the curve of infections and deaths while reducing the overall strain on the health care system.

Clear results

And here are the results we’ve seen:

▪ Expected infection rates, but lower than expected levels of hospitalization.

▪ Lower than expected mortality rates with most fatalities occurring among the populations predicted to be hardest hit: the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions.

▪ Success in employing personal safety precautions like social distancing and wearing face masks.

But some things haven’t worked.

Hospitals and associated medical practices suffered dramatic reductions in patients and business. Why? Because they had to cancel all elective surgeries rather than simply staggering them.

Meanwhile, “stay at home” orders by state and local governments ended up sidelining tens of thousands of people, forcing them to file for unemployment benefits while also crippling the economy.

Inaccurate predictions

And through all of this, what we have learned is that the virus may be less deadly than originally thought.

The reality is that predictions of potentially millions of deaths from COVID-19 have simply been inaccurate — and that high-population hotspots like New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts make up nearly half of all the nationwide cases and deaths.

In South Carolina the number of new infections remains manageable, and the percentage of new cases versus total cases continues to decline even as our testing efforts increase.

But that’s not what is being reported by media outlets, which are desperate for clicks and viewers. Every new case of COVID-19 is treated as breaking news, and anchors broadcasting from home is a gimmick that does more harm than good.

Selling fear

This can’t be the model going forward.

We have to coexist with COVID-19, and that means putting into place realistic, sustainable measures that recognize that until the virus is cured, life for those who are most at risk will dramatically change.

The fears of a second wave of COVID-19 are driven by fear rather than data, and they do not help us create a sustainable way to coexist with the coronavirus.

We need to have a realistic way to address how to protect those most at risk, as well as giving them the tools for coping with a “new normal” — a reality that the rest of society has already started to acknowledge by acting responsibly to keep infection rates low.

Simply put the media are selling fear.

But the rest of us must go on with our lives. The rest of us must coexist with this virus.

Let’s reopen

So it’ is time to let individuals — who care about the people in their families more than any government ever will — lead the way through cautious responsibility.

And it is time to let businesses reopen with the same degrees of responsible caution so that people can earn livelihoods and provide futures for their families.

We should continue to proceed with caution.

We should continue to practice social distance.

We should continue to wear face masks.

We should be willing to stay at home if we are not comfortable with the pace of reopening our state.

But we should reopen united as one.

A Columbia native, Peter Brown is president of Colite. He served as chairman of the SC Jobs- Economic Development Authority from 2005 to 2013.