There’s a lot we don’t know about the novel coronavirus, be we know that it’s taken the world in a direction that’s never been seen in modern history.

The only thing in my lifetime that’s had some similarity is the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in the 1980s. There was plenty of uncertainty, and at first a significant dose of misinformation. There was even a rumor that people could get AIDS by donating blood.

It still didn’t come close to the kind of social distancing we’re seeing in 2020. Gradually scientific truth took hold. The virus was recognized as a risk to millions of people.

We have to hope the same thing will happen with coronavirus, maybe at a much faster pace given the potential for it to cause thousands upon thousands of fatalities.

We’ve been told that the vast majority of people who contract the virus will successfully recover, that it’s about a two percent to three percent death rate. That estimate made me think about a learning simulation from my environmental education days called Checks and Balances.

The simulation measures the impact of different activities on the population of a wild herd. By far the biggest negative factors are habitat destruction and habitat alteration.

Disease is measured as well, and it shows that in general disease is not the greatest threat to the herd. Except for a modest death loss, the herd usually maintains reasonably good numbers. It bounces back given the right set of overall conditions.

Two or three out of a hundred doesn’t pose that much of a threat in wildlife biology. It’s a whole different situation with human life.

Even one tenth of one percent is far too many. That makes it vitally important for everyone to take the right precautions such as hand washing, keeping surfaces clean, and staying home when there’s no need to be out and about.

News reports indicate that those adjustments might be needed well into this spring, possibly even longer. We’re seeing video from major cities in which cultural landmarks are getting no visitors. They’re standing empty and it’s not a movie scene.

We’re also seeing some desire for a united approach to the problem, for cooperation that has rarely happened with most recent issues.

The emphasis is on saving lives, not on blaming China or blaming globalization. Many political problems seem much smaller when daily lives are affected this much. Everyone is hoping for the best that scientists will came through in terms of detection and treatment.

It’s possible that we’ve tested the limits of globalization. Maybe we’re not meant to have millions of people hopscotch among the continents. Possibly it has to take place with more worldwide precautions, such as less crowded airports and smaller cruise ships.

For things the Coronavirus has temporaily taken away, many of us have been given extra time. We can use it to do things we often put off, such as exercising or tax preparation.

There’s time to do a few things just because we want to do them. Most of us like watching favorite movies on DVD. We like reading books at a brisk pace. We like looking ahead to projects around the house. It’s enjoyable to cook a meal when you have the better part of an afternoon or evening to get it ready.

Most of all there’s extra time to reach out to relatives and friends. Undoubtedly there will be communication that wouldn’t happen if we didn’t have online social media.

We might see a change in how we use the Internet. There might be a change to the tone of national politics. We know that this virus will go down in history like the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 or the tuberculosis risks of the early 20th century and the work of medical pioneers such as Louis and Kathleen Jordan, who operated the Riveside Sanitorium regional treatment center in Granite Falls.

There’s time to think, time to set some priorities for what we want out of life. Meanwhile we have to have faith that we’ll soon be able to act on our priorities. There’s a lot that can be accomplished with a unified effort.