Some time ago, I read "The Blank Slate" by Steven Pinker. The one part that really got to me was that our hunter-gatherer genetics for assessing and managing risk are not suitable for this modern age.

We can see poor risk thinking in so many facets of life. People kind of adhere to speed limits on highways not because of enhanced safety, but because of losing their driver's license.

I still run across people who believe masks will protect us. However that protection is minimal (as you have said). The real reason is that masks minimize the spray from an infected person, who probably doesn't know he is infected.

As I said in my previous response, the underlying force to our Covid response has been having enough ICU hospital beds to handle more sick people. Whether or not that is the best approach is another discussion.

It's been interesting to watch how the authorities have done things differently as the world learns more about the nature of this disease. Last spring, my son could not understand why the playground was shut down. But this intervention probably won't happen again. And physicians have learned better ways to handle the very sick: ventilotors are not used as much as they used to.

I'm glad Sweden has taken a different approach. We will have a good data to study different approaches when this is all over. But it's clear that this country is not going to turn into a nation of Black Death.

But we will learn the right lessons?

Of that, I am not convinced.

We should have had a medical/economic plan for a pandemic in place before the pandemic. We didn't.