HASTINGS: Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard (Legislative District 47) and I 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.”

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.

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.

View the article HERE