Will the COVID-19 Pandemic End Like War of the Worlds or Logan’s Run?

In moments when I am not obsessively reading technical reports on COVID-19, my mind drifts to science fiction plots involving invaders. Do these films offer clues to how we can defeat the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2?

 

With the government-ordered CDC guidance for reopening delayed, dumbed-down, cut by an order of magnitude, and ignored, we need help, from anywhere, in protecting the vulnerable while restoring some economic normalcy.

 

The space invaders of the classic depictions either succumb to slowly-emerging natural weaknesses or we blow them up. But the scariest sci-fi theme to me isn't about monsters or microbes at all.

 

In the film Logan's Run, people over age 30 sacrifice themselves to save resources for the others.

 

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