Now that the state is in social distancing shutdown for a serious period of time, some politicians on the Republican side object.

A state senator says, in paraphrase, that this cure is worse than the disease. He cites “police state” restrictions that will “fool our younger generation” into thinking that “communism seems like freedom.”

Some Republican state legislators and Douglas County commissioners have indicted Governor Jared Polis for joining with “unelected bureaucrats” in ordering the shutdown. These elected Republicans are referring to Tri County and other public health officials who put forward an order to shelter in place. Douglas County lawmakers objected to the mandate based on the “un-electedness” of the health officials. Yet what are unelected “bureaucrats,” otherwise known as public health experts, supposed to do if they believe that elected officials, without professional expertise and background, make uninformed decisions that threaten public health?

Two parallel experiments are now in play. The first is what’s actually happening in Colorado, New York, California, and other states with significant to severe incidences of corona virus sickness and deaths. In this real example, people are staying home and working virtually, going to grocery and liquor stores as rarely as possible, playing board games and outdoor basketball in driveways with kids, and washing hands frequently. The economic peril is obvious and serious. The hope is that the virus will fade, work will resume, and eventually, in nature’s time, our human activities will pick up.

The second experiment is what’s not happening in Colorado, New York, and California. It’s a thought problem that envisions a contagious virus spreading in the human activity of a free market economy with large sports events, full restaurants and bars, bridge game competitions among mostly elderly people, malls full of shoppers, packed light rail trains, citizens bustling in and out of capitols, school classrooms in action, ski slopes and pickle ball courts packed, the elderly in assisted living happily receiving visits from their children, masseuses practicing their arts, churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples offering regular religious services, work out clubs in full swing, festive graduation ceremonies at colleges and schools, and large family gatherings to celebrate birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc.

The results of the first experiment are in. We won’t know the results from the second experiment. Can we hypothesize? Would it be likely that many more people would get infected by the easily transmitted virus and die? With no vaccine to lessen the impact, and no medication for cure, pervasive sickness would get really bad.

High rates of illness will initially concentrate in places where millions of people live and congregate, that is large coastal cities with lots of in and out traffic from foreign and domestic travelers. We know that from New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and New Orleans.

But since people in the American heartland enjoy sporting events, shopping, and the occasional dinner at a nice restaurant, eventually the virus would creep its way inland along interstate highways. The bug might even reach rural towns such as Sterling and Yuma and probably into the senior centers there where the elderly go for social activities and meals. And since relatives would be able to visit their older loved ones, eventually younger families in these rural towns would experience infection, and as kids went to school, the virus would spread more deeply and farther. And so it goes.

The economic havoc is going to happen regardless. U.S. Senator Cory Gardner stated in an op-ed that “Coloradans are hurting because of actions ordered by their government.” That sounds like “governments” are acting in an arbitrary and irresponsible manner. The reality is that nature creates catastrophe and humankind cannot wish its way out of it.

Humankind can take reasonable steps in the face of great calamity to reduce the impact. That’s what the U.S. government finally did during the Great Depression, and still does with crop subsidies to help farmers and ranchers, some of whom live in Sterling and Yuma, maintain their financial well-being.

It would have been helpful if the nation, and its governments, had taken steps earlier. But the howl on that one would have been universal. We are where we are. The two experiments suggest it’s best to suck it up now, take our medicine, and move on when the virus ends its run. That’s not communism, police state, or malevolent government. That’s science and good American sense.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.