Alaska to drop all coronavirus rules

Regulatory powers shouldn't be all or nothing in the fight against coronavirus. But responses that were too authoritarian should have been rejected out of hand for being doomed to fail.

Now Alaska is set to become the first U.S. state to lift all coronavirus restrictions. Certainly, local governments will be allowed to have regulations to strike a middle ground without imposing a police state. But statewide rules will be just a memory. Alaska was also one of few places in America able to block out-of-state visitors, because it does not border any other part of the U.S. Even that restriction is probably being lifted on June 2.

It's also interesting that states that repealed lockdowns the earliest - Montana is another example - now have some of the fewest cases of this virus per capita.

Nationwide, the prevalence of this virus is estimated to be less than one-fourth of what it was at its peak, based on the case count weighted with the number of tests given. But some act as if it's only getting worse, and blogs make money by whipping up this fear. If Alaska can drop all its rules, certainly the other states can drop enough of their rules that they can honestly claim to not be a command state. But don't hold your breath. Some folks don't want anything reopened until the case count is precisely zero - which may be futile even with the long-awaited vaccines or similar preventative antibody treatments coming, as even polio still has a handful of cases each year.

Panic has accomplished nothing. Only science will win - as new treatments or even vaccines will be rolled out soon.