Coronavirus is a stupid virus. The bet is that we’re not stupid people.

It started (we think) in filthy conditions, in a marketplace in Wuhan, China, where non-domesticated animals are caged live in squalid conditions and sold for food. It seems to have initially spread in those conditions.

So the virus itself is not the only factor affecting the spread of the virus. We’ve seen similar instances.

The Bubonic Plague bacteria was spread by fleas, which infected rats. Getting rid of the Plague included getting rid of rats and fleas.

Similarly, Polio was spread through contact with feces or when an infected person sneezed or coughed. Yes, we developed a vaccine for it, but around that same time, modern plumbing and sewage treatment helped with basic sanitation, and Polio has fallen off the grid as a serious concern.

In the same way, Coronavirus is spread by “non-viral” conditions. People with the virus cough and spread it. But Coronavirus is not a super-bug. It is a stupid bug. It has certain properties (which we know) can be significantly reduced and even eliminated in any environment by washing (hands, faces, things in your home) with simple soapy water, or simply by staying away from it and letting it die.

Sometimes this isn’t always possible. But doing so is a goal. And we now are in the midst of a major effort to remind people again to stay away from people who may have a spreadable form of the disease, and to wash their hands, wash surfaces that have been exposed to the virus.

Yes, “draconian” measures enabled places like China and South Korea to significantly interrupt the spread of the virus. But simpler measures such as these will likely be effective as well.

President Trump is betting that the Coronavirus is a stupid virus, and that 15 days-worth of attention to “social separation” and better hygiene will greatly facilitate the “flattening of the curve”.

That’s not the only response, however. The response we’re seeing is both massive and multi-faceted.

Trump as CEO is clearly in “git ‘er done” mode. For example, he has also called in Navy hospital ships to New York City and Los Angeles to ease burdens on medical facilities there. There are other (multi-faceted) military responses as well.

There is also an effort to enlist private enterprise as a counter measure to existing government (bureaucratic) ineptitude. The much-publicized failure in “testing” is a result of the fact that no one in the government has had the foresight to just go off and create and stockpile millions of this specific variety of test. Or N95 masks. Or respirators.

Trump as CEO probably had the issue of testing brought up, and he at first listened to his designated advisors on that, the CDC. “Yes, Mr. President, we can take care of that”, they would have said. The problem was, they weren’t prepared to do it. That process took some (valuable) time.

So Trump’s response has been to bring in a massive and muti-faceted corporate / public “partnership”, which included people who CAN do that. Large and small organizations alike have been enlisted to try to produce massive numbers of tests. Organizations that can enable quick and “drive-thru” testing at a retail level (Walmart, Target, CVS, etc.). And quick analysis and results through commercial testing labs like Roche and LabCorp. Along with a central source for compiling testing results.

Masks and respirators are now being mass-produced by major corporations like 3M and distributed by ThermoFisher, which is a large scientific catalog/distribution company. They have the ability to move to a “war-time” footing, in a way that is similar to the US’s production of bombers and bombs, tanks, ships, and other weaponry during World War II.

He’s also given the states license (by removing FDA regulations, which maybe involved congress) to turn States into “50 laboratories” of experimentation to create their own responses to their own individual needs. Each state can find its own version of Walmart and 3M and Thermofisher to facilitate their own testing and other responses to the spread of the virus.

Trump has mobilized huge numbers of different people and organizations to do lots of different things. At a federal level, he has removed obstacles such as FDA regulations, to enable the testing and public trials of existing drugs to treat the disease.

At a public level, we are asked to observe “social separation”, not to hoard, but to observe sound hygiene principles everywhere.

Out of this, some will be more successful than others. But we will learn what works and what doesn’t. Trump has been saying, he wants this process to be repeatable and scalable going forward. So if anything like this happens again, we as a country will have a ready pattern for mobilization.

We know the terms: “scalable”; “repeatable”.

And none of this is even beginning to speak to the financial responses.

Trump is in every way showing his trust in “the American people”. He is betting his presidency on the fact that Americans will catch on to the right ways to respond to a stupid virus. He is betting that Americans, by and large, won’t be stupid people. As more and more people recover (even those who are asymptomatic), more and more people will have immunity to the spread of the virus.

Hawk below has already cited a medical expert suggesting that we might find the fatality rate is “much lower than we have been fearing”.

And President Trump is predicting that, if that’s the case, things will get back to normal sooner rather than later.