Health & Prosperity?

Coronavirus is often compared to the flu, to the car accidents that daily take the lives of many across the nation, and to the simple danger that presents itself when we cross a busy street. Sure, these actions are part of the danger of being alive, but we have accepted them as part of the cost of being a fleshy human in 21st century life; for many of life’s daily challenges, fear has softened into mundane acceptance.    
The same is slowly happening with COVID, but I do not bemoan the harshness of the first lockdown that is now slowly lessening its grip across the nation. Many of the harsher projections turned out to be inaccurate; not nearly as many people died as we once thought might, even taking the lockdown into account. This should be a cause for celebration, not an excuse to take potshots at projections that were extremely inaccurate only in retrospect. We had no real way to know what the actual burden of COVID would be on our country, but we have a more clear picture of the virus’s potency, long-term effects, life cycle, and its incubation time, than we did months ago.
If tightening Coronavirus related regulations is again necessary, we need to use the information we now have to work towards solutions that won’t require unsustainable multi-trillion dollar bailouts, mass layoffs, and a disruption of day-to-day well-being for millions. I do not see our economy as a singular pulse-rate that indicates how we are doing, but it is certainly important. Even with vast relief efforts, small businesses are suffering around the country. Despite government assistance, our economy is in dire straits. I know the ravages of this scourge will ultimately pass, and the work before us all is to hang in there.  Many businesses who work with a tight summer turnaround and slim profit margins have had to shutter altogether, the end of upstart dreams for many.
We now know that only about 0.01% of the population under 65 have died of it. The risk for much of the population is small; this is no Bubonic Plague. Put another way, 80% of the population is in the least vulnerable cohort; 80% of our population of 328 million is 26,000 people, which is in the ballpark of the total number of people who die in auto accidents in America annually (38,800)
Yet we can still be cautious and protective of our infirm and elderly population in a meaningful way without shutting down society as a whole; one positive thing to come out of COVID is the proof that many companies can work from home with minimum impact to productivity. Tech companies have continued to work on their projects with negligible impact on workflow. 
As we move forward, we can use the knowledge gained from countries as well as our experiences from several months of lockdown to find solutions that minimize risk to both individuals and the country’s workforce as a whole. South Korea was faster and more aggressive in its testing rollout; New Zealand imposed measures before a single case was found in the nation, and was able to reopen much faster as a result. We know that masks, as a whole, prevent particles from spreading person-to-person in a way that makes a big-picture difference. We know working at home is viable for many. We also know, according to another Wall Street Journal review and report titled “What Covid Models Got Wrong,” that our hospitals did not face the burden we feared they might.
As we move forward, we should allow vulnerable populations and those close to them to work at home. We should ensure that safety nets are in place for those who need to be extra careful. If we are smart, we can beat a second wave without smashing the knees of our economy and the well-being of many. It isn’t: do we save lives, or do we open the economy? We must have both. By seeking health without prosperity, or prosperity, without health, we will have neither.