Note: Joe Biden won South Carolina last night. That definitely changes the primary equation — but Tuesday night will really “tell the tale” of Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg and a possible brokered convention. More on Wednesday.
COVID-19
We don’t know what’s going to happen with the “COVID-19”, commonly (and inaccurately) called CORONAVIRUS. COVID-19 is a type of Coronavirus, one of many, that is now causing illnesses throughout the world. We don’t know how “bad” it is, though preliminary information indicates a death rate of about 2%. COVID-19 seems to kill the old, the very young, and the immune-compromised. That’s unlike SARS of a few years ago or the Spanish Flu of 1918: those killed the young and healthy first.
We do know that it’s a virus that can be transmitted through the air in the form of droplets, and through contact. And we know it’s here in the United States, both in the form of those who unfortunately were in Asia when it broke out, and now, those getting it through what is wonderfully called “community transmission”. That phrase really means: we don’t know how the Hell they got it, it simply was “out there” in the community.
Not the Flu
It’s going to be a “thing” for a while. Likely, folks will get sick, and if the numbers hold true, 98% of them will get better. That’s compared to the “regular” flu, where the fatality rate is .05%. In clearer terms, if 10000 people get the flu, five will likely die. If 10000 people get Covid-19, two hundred will die. That’s a big difference.
We are being told that wearing a mask won’t stop Covid-19. So we are supposed to wash our hands, not touch our face, and make sure that if we get sick, we don’t go out, we self-quarantine. All of which seems to be pretty lame answers for what should be a national emergency.
Deep State Rescue
The present Administration in Washington has done everything it can to denigrate the “deep-state:” those government workers who in various ways make our country run. We’ve been told that the scientists who predict global climate change are wrong, “bought out by the extreme left,” and that the intelligence agencies are out to get the President. The Trump Administration instead offers us nonexistent “clean coal” and takes away our flavored Vape pens. Facts have been a casualty of this White House since the very beginning, political and scientific.
On Fox News, commentator Laura Ingraham offers us this calming advice:
“Instead of giving in to panic and partisanship perhaps we should thank the good Lord that we live in the most well equipped country in the world to weather these challenges and overcome them.”
The problem is, the United States may not be as equipped as we have been. Offices sit vacant in the National Institute of Health, the White House, and the Department of Homeland Security. We’re not sure that this Administration has he personnel to “weather these challenges”.
Political Medicine
There have been medical crises in the past. Just recently the Obama Administration faced the Ebola virus, a disease with a 90% fatality rate. Quickly and quietly, they kept Ebola out of the general US population. They brought US citizens exposed to the virus back home and treated them. They worked with the rest of the world to find a way to stop it, with a “cure” that drops the fatality rate to 34%. And they found a vaccine, a way to prevent Ebola.
That was a huge “success” of both the Obama Administration and the world, but most importantly, for science.
There have been failures as well. When HIV first arrived in the United States, it was a disease soon wrapped in politics. Because it first afflicted the gay community, spending money and resources on research became “a thing” for the Reagan Administration. AIDS was controversial: it wasn’t until the virus got into the general population’s blood supply and began to impact all Americans, including the deaths of tennis star Arthur Ashe and hemophiliac Ryan White, that the disease was “normalized”.
It took six years to develop the first vaccine. By 1996 23 million people had the disease worldwide. By then scientists had developed treatments that allowed people to live for longer periods of time. Today there are over a million Americans living with HIV. But more than 700,000 died before the disease was controlled.
The Good Guys
So what is COVID-19 going to be, Ebola or HIV?
The answer is neither: COVID-19 is not nearly as deadly as either of those. And, as Ms. Ingraham said, we are the nation “best equipped” to deal with this national health issue. The problem the Trump Administration has is depending on “the good guys” in the white coats to find solutions. Mr. Trump has made it a policy to alter facts and ignore science when it suits his story. He has already done so with COVID-19. “It will miraculously disappear in the summer,” he said, and if we “…don’t touch handrails” we may be all right.
And noted anti-science guy, Vice President Mike Pence, is now in charge.
So now we are depending on the Vice President and the President to let science “loose” on COVID-19, and get out of the way. We are depending on them to give us the facts so we can take appropriate actions to protect our families and ourselves without unnecessarily barricading our houses with towels under the doors.
The White House needs to get out of the way, and let the “white coats” do their thing. They need to let “the good guys” of science solve the problem. We need to hope that politics can be set aside, something that the President has so far been unable to do. Don’t hold your breath, though that is one short term preventative measure – really short term.
