Recent public health-related developments in America^1-3 and in other countries^1,4,5,6 have illustrated the need for balance in governmental interventions aimed at reducing the spread of the COVID-19 contagion.^5-8

Earth has experienced terrible pandemics before coronavirus.

Earlier this month, as archaeologists were researching an old Viking trade route in central Norway, they reminded us that Eurasia’s “Black Death” plague previously blanketed many Nordic countries about 600 years ago.^{1, 2}

Although details differ according to where you are, it is often quieter these days due to stay-at-home restrictions on normally noisy human activities. Less loudness and more calmness—some of that can be good¹—yet ongoing economic shutdowns can cripple or crush curtailed livelihoods. So it’s calmer now, but not completely silent.

As the world faces the need to speedily (yet safely) recover from quarantine-like lockdowns, some fear the danger of over-delayed returns to normal, while others fear the opposite and assume that the coronavirus is still a greater evil than hunkering down at home. Denmark began reopening its country, but faced its share of controversy among its citizens.