Our World
We are not in a perfect world. Our world today, with the dark shadow of COVID-19 hanging over everything, is far, far from perfect. And worse than that, COVID-19 is deceptive. If there were a hazardous fog, like a chlorine gas leak, we would know what to do. Or if thick smoke from a nearby fire, or volcanic ash was falling, we would understand. But it’s not the air, or the earth, that’s threatening. It’s us.
Humans are the threat. But how big a threat are we? It’s like that old Amway pitch, circles connecting to circles. We have our own circle, our immediate household. But someone has to go to the grocery store, and, unfortunately some have to go to work. So they create all new circles, circles that include people they don’t even know. And they bring all the possible infections of all those people back into their own immediate circle.
And who knows who’s infected? In fact, you may not know that you are infected yourself. Does someone in your circle have a cold, the flu, a bad hangover? Or is it COVID-19, and you are now in the fourteen-day incubation window? And that’s the whole point of wearing protection, facemasks and such, in public. No one, including yourself, knows.
What We Did
In a perfect world – we would have tested people coming into the country last December. A corona-virus team would have met folks at the airports, identified the infected, and traced all of their contacts. Blame whoever you want, but we didn’t do that.
In a somewhat less perfect world, we would have done what we did – sheltered in place. We would have done that to “flatten the curve” in order to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed with COVID patients. And we did that, in a piecemeal kind of way. During that time we would have made sure we had all of the equipment, from PPE to ventilators, available. And again, in a clunky way, we’ve managed to do that as well.
While everyone was at home, we needed to find a way to keep people supported financially. The $1200 handed out by the Federal government was too little, and for many, too late or not at all. So for the four to six weeks we “flattened” we also created an enormous economic pressure to get “back out”. So that didn’t work out very well.
Where We Are
So here we are – under pressure (Bowie song – insert here) and we are opening. The problem is, while we flattened the curve, we didn’t end the disease. It’s still out there, just as much as it was in March, and the curve is perfectly capable of spiking again. So we need to take precautions: social distance, masks (yes, for you for me, and vice versa) and we need to realize that things ARE NOT BACK TO NORMAL.
And we need to test, and trace, and do the public health things to control the disease. Those things that we could have done in December and January, but failed to do. And we need to create a financial safety net for folks who get infected, so they can say to their family and their employers, “I’m not working so I don’t infect others, and we won’t suffer financially”. Any other alternative puts infected folks out in the work force – something that is unacceptable for ANY disease, much less one as infectious as this one.
Where We’ll Be
So what if we just ignore all of that, and “go back” to the good old days, two months ago? COVID-19 doesn’t have a political agenda; it doesn’t favor Biden over Trump. The virus knows one thing: how to spread. So if we don’t do the right thing now, the virus will do its thing. It will infect many, many more people, and by our own actions we will kill some of them.
And we will be forced to close again, but this time it won’t be as easy. Before all of this, 40% of Americans couldn’t afford a $400 expense. While I can’t find a statistic to point you to, I think we can all agree that the percentage is much higher now. And there seems to be no appetite among some of our leaders to fix the financial problems that face average Americans. It’s all about “getting open” and “going back to work”. So the second time, when the Governors (certainly not the President) say, “stay home,” there’s going to be Hell to pay.
We are making American workers face an impossible choice. They can work, support their families, and face disease. Or they can stay home, keep their circle safe and healthy, and face poverty.
And that’s not a perfect world at all.
