Where to even begin?
I had a rude awakening on Sunday when I went to Sam’s club to get groceries. I arrived first thing in the morning with my mask and gloves…Sam’s club is dangerous enough for me on an ordinary day with all the peanut product samples they serve, but I wasn’t taking any chances with COVID-19. Upon arrival, there was a line….and with social distancing….It was a long line. It was a slow moving line…they only let in a few at a time…and the poor girl manning the door, all those people walking 2 feet by her….social distancing indeed.
I haven’t really been upset by this whole self seclusion and stockpile TP business until I walked in and saw so many empty shelves. So. Many. Empty. Shelves. My rational mind knows that the trucks are coming at the start of the week, and that a bunch of people probably stocked up on Saturday….But they were restricting consumers to one of each item….so how much stocking up was done? I was able to get what I needed…mostly. And then on Monday, the Governor of Michigan issued the “Stay home, Stay safe’ order.
But here is why I am upset. I feel like the US government failed the American public back in January and February when the situation was downplayed, minimized, and a sense of false assurance and security was instilled on the American people. We were told, ‘It’s fine’, ‘The situation is under control’, ‘and We have this’ when, in fact, it is not under control, and we are not fine. Take politics out of this discussion. Take democrats, republicans, and your political perspectives out of the discussion, take your loyalty to your party (whatever party) out of the discussion and take away blame/responsibility, and lets look at what we are left with:
- We have known since December that China was battling an epidemic that was heading towards pandemic territory as we watched Austria and Italy (among other locations) fall ill with the Corona Virus in January and Februry.
- We knew on January 10th that the Corona Virus had the potential to spread and on January 17th as airports began screening passengers entering the US from Wuhan, China for possible infection. In January a travel ban was enacted on people coming from China.
- On January 22, the situation was minimized as “one person coming in from China” and “We have it totally under control” (source: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/01/22/watch-the-full-cnbc-interview-with-us-president-donald-trump-from-davos.html ) A day later, On January 23, the red flag was raised because there wasn’t enough information available to ascertain that “It’s fine”, because we didn’t know how the virus was spread, or the timeline for infection.
- It isn’t revealed until the 26th of January that the virus can spread prior to the onset of symptoms. In response to this a Task Force was assembled, and that they were “On top of it”, the next day, travel restrictions on US citizens is announced.
- January 31st a public health emergency was declared, and 200 US citizens were removed from China and quarantined in California.
- The first week of February we see increases in affected people around the world, But the message to the American people is that China had the situation under control, and the improving weather conditions will slow the spread of the virus. On February 10th, the statement was made that by the beginning of April the virus will miraculously go away.
- By the third week of February the the CDC is warning the american people that the corona virus will spread, and people need to prepare for disruptions to their daily lives. Yet, This was contradicted the next day February 26th, when it was stated “I don’t think it’s inevitable. I think that there’s a chance that it could get worse, a chance it could get fairly substantially worse, but nothing’s inevitable.”
- February 29 marks the date of the first Corona Virus Fatality in the US, 39 days after an infected man arriving from China landed in Seattle.
And here we are today, no toilet paper to be found. The rubber has hit the road, and most people have come to the realization that we are not in fact fine. We have run out and stockpiled TP, sanitizer, and cleaning supplies, and now food in response to the fact that this virus is out there, we have no control of its spread, and we have limited access to medical help.
Most people in the country are being asked to practice social distancing, some people are being quarantined in their homes and communities in heavily impacted areas. There are not enough tests to go around to all the people exhibiting symptoms, the tests that are conducted are taking days, and up to a week to come back, and the american economy has come to a near standstill as stock markets have crashed and businesses are closing and minimizing operations.
Since the start of this situation it has been downplayed, minimized, and even joked about. Is it any wonder why people are refusing to practice the social distancing? Yet, In South Korea, when the red flags rose, they immediately insured that they had the testing procedures, materials and protocols in place to insure widespread efficient testing. South Korea has tested 40 times more people per capita than the US, and has already seen a decline in their new cases. They also used the data from that testing to identify hot spots and isolate them to prevent further spread. They have identified points of contact, isolated potential exposures, and monitored symptoms by separating people potentially exposed to centers for monitoring that have eased the burden on hospitals. In addition, the message being broadcast in South Korea is that of practicing personal safety, and erring on the side of caution. While public and widespread information about preventing the spread of corona virus is ongoing, people are also being provided with up to the hour information about locations and histories of newly discovered cases, so people can determine if they have come into contact with an infected person. If they have been exposed, there are specific procedures in place for testing and isolation to prevent further spread prior to the onset of symptoms. The full article is here https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/world/asia/coronavirus-south-korea-flatten-curve.html?referringSource=articleShare&fbclid=IwAR0GD4eMTKlDFtXhLaE49Vmo2qMxD7I9UreoJUvPSeCHJFD3myKh_E5aPy0 and worth the read.
We are past the point of politics on this one. This virus is here, it is spreading, and now we are at a point of impact reduction via quarantine and social distancing. Pointing fingers, and casting blame isn’t going to solve this. All of America will suffer the impacts, see interactive map here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/21/us/coronavirus-us-cases-spread.html . Since our government has essentially failed to adequately prepare the American population for this situation, the American public must stand united, in our homes and away from others, to prevent uncontrolled spread of this virus. While other countries were preparing, we were minimizing. So now, it is up to each individual family to heed the red flags that have been raised.
