The country seems to be pulling in two complete opposite directions in response to the Covid-19 crisis. In the last 24 hours, the governor of Florida has issued a stay at home order, the state of Texas has closed schools until May 4th, and the White House has warned that the death toll in the US could exceed 100,000.
In contrast, the governor of Cumming, Georgia has withdrawn a city wide stay at home order. Hobby Lobby is refusing to close and Liberty University has reopened. Several pastors have been in the news, and a couple arrested, for holding services entailing mass gatherings.
A virus, which originated in a communist country, now has a large portion of America’s population without their basic freedoms. Let that sink in. It is now abundantly clear that China drastically under reported the number of people in China that were infected and the number that have died. This under-reporting left the rest of the world unprepared as world leaders under estimated the impact the virus would have on their own nations.
I personally believe that the biggest threats to us right now are the detrimental effects that this is having on the economy, the impacts on mental health and most importantly, the loss of our civil liberties. I think that there will be protests in the form of public gatherings at schools, restaurants, churches, bars, concerts, etc. before this is all over. That said, I ABSOLUTELY think that we should all sit tight AT HOME until the end of April at a minimum and until the end of May at a maximum. We need to allow time for the hospitals to be properly stocked with supplies, and we need more time for scientists to gain an understanding of how to treat the virus.
Before the virus became the headline of every day’s news in every country in the world, I wrote a blog post that did basic risk modeling of the virus. I have hope that my model was significantly off, but I still believe that the death toll will be catastrophic world wide. My perspective is that we can not stop the spread of the virus, we can only buy time for research and preparation. Everyday that we buy time is at the expense of our economy, mental health and our precious civil liberties. Deaths, largely in the form of suicide, but also in the form of domestic violence, resulting from the impacts on the economy and our freedoms will rival the death toll of the virus. There has to be some sort of balance. Instead of balance, the pendulum seems to swing entirely in one direction or the other, and it disheartens me that this pendulum seems to swing with political allegiances.
Right now, the boys and I are eating some of the best home cooked meals that we have eaten in a long time, and we are spending tons of time together. I got a paycheck yesterday, so we splurged and ordered a pizza from our favorite, locally owned pizza place. We all take little breaks through out the day to snuggle with the fur kids. Both boys are thriving with their online learning, and we are doing all sorts of extra things like logic puzzles and learning cursive. I am taking time to reflect, reset and reprioritize my life in a good way. We will continue to do all of this over the next 30 days.
In contrast, there are people in hospitals dying alone because their love ones cannot be with them for fear of being infected with the virus. There are healthcare providers working inconceivably long days without proper supplies, which in turn poses a severe threat to their own health. There are relatives of these healthcare workers feeling helpless as they fear for the safety of their loved one. There are doctors in other countries having to make decisions on who to treat and who will simply be left to die. There are women giving birth alone because of restrictions on who can enter hospitals. There are countless people out of work that do not know how they are going to pay their rent today, or when they will have an income again. There are countless parents worried about how they are going to afford to feed their children. There are elderly people consumed by loneliness because they cannot have visitors. There are children trapped in abusive homes, without their daily escape that the school day had provided for. And shit, there are people who have run out of toilet paper!
That last sentence is meant to be satirical.
This is a time for us to embrace what we have, a time to be patient, generous and cooperative, and a time to stop and truly see the perspectives of others. It is so easy for us to get wrapped up in our daily lives, this is a trait that makes us human. It is okay to be human, just take a moment each day to really look around at where you are and consider where so many others are.
I believe that resilience and coming together as a community, as a city, as a state, as a country are what will ultimately see us through this crisis, and by coming together, I mean both in spirit and in person when the time comes.