RIDGE RUNNER CHRONICLES: Things That Went Wrong With Covid 19

By Editor | January 27, 2026 |

By Bill Hoagland

It’s been almost six years to the day since we began enduring the rages of Covid 19. Frankly, I had forgotten many of the details, mainly because this was not a pleasant time for any of us and it helped to put those memories on the far back shelf. But I recently read a book by Michael Osterholm, a highly respected epidemiologist, entitled “The Big One”,,that talks in depth about what went wrong during Covid 19 and what we can do to minimize the effects of the next pandemic, which he refers to as “The Big One.”
I am familiar with the author because I heard him during his podcast interview with Joe Rogan on March 10, 2020. What he had to say was scary and because of his prediction (that we would probably experience a million deaths in the US because of this virus), many scientists rejected his predictions out of hand. Yet he was dead right. So when I heard that he had written a new book, I knew I had to read it. I don’t have the space in this column to detail his recommendations for dealing with “The Big One”, but I will try to briefly cover his views on what we did wrong when Covid 19 invaded our country.
The biggest mistake our health authorities made, according to Osterholm, was failing to recognize that this virus is an aerosol-acquired disease, meaning that exposure occurs by breathing contaminated air, not by being exposed to contaminated droplets. This means that the cloth facial masks and the six-feet rule (that persons need to be six feet apart in a crowd) are completely useless. An aerosol-acquired disease can spread rapidly across a room and infect someone 30 feet away; droplets can’t. Unfortunately, contaminated air is difficult to evaluate because infectious aerosols are extremely diluted and it is hard to collect and culture fine particles of air. The other factor with aerosol-acquired diseases is that they are rare; measles and tuberculosis are the most common aerosol-acquired diseases and our heath “experts” were overlooking this type of infection because it is not occurring very often in our current medical environment.
The second major mistake was the failure to recognize that the only facial mask that prevents exposure to aerosol-acquired diseases is the N95 respirator. The CDC unfortunately recommended “wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain”; and as we know, other governmental agencies repeated this bad advice despite the fact that there was no scientific papers cited to support the notion that cloth masks provided any protection whatsoever from airborne transmissions. And so we had people using “Jesse James-style” handkerchiefs as masks, thinking they were safe. They weren’t.
Osterholm discusses other issues that just made things worse, such as the impact of the so-called “experts” on social media dispensing horrible advice, the lack of long-term efficacy of the mRNA vaccines, those ill-advised governmental mandates and the government’s lack of candor in being honest with the public as to what was really happening. If you are interested in finding out how to reduce our exposure to the next pandemic, Osterholm’s book is a good place to start.
Note: If you think we are done with Covid 19, think again. I have two friends who have just been diagnosed with Covid 19—all more the reason to get educated sooner rather than later.
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■ Bill Hoagland has practiced law in Alton for more than 50 years, but he has spent more than 70 years hunting, fishing and generally being in the great outdoors. His wife, Annie, shares his love of the outdoor life. Much of their spare time is spent on their farm in Calhoun County. Bill can be reached at [email protected].