I think we explored the other issues. And set out where we agree and don’t agree.
With regard to Covid 19. Big picture.
If you are in an “at risk” category, then it is something to be seriously concerned with. In general, the US is doing an okay job protecting the institutionalized “at risk” population if you exclude the disastrous policies of a few Democratic governors mostly in the Northeast when they initially treated the reluctance of nursing homes and other facilities to accept discharged Covid patients as a social discrimination rather than a health discrimination issue. These policies have been rescinded.
With regard to the independent “at risk” population which includes people like me. By now you should know what to do. If you do those things you are relatively safe.
With regard to the general population, if everyone followed the current CDC guidance (in the past there were some initial mistakes made), things would be going pretty well. Americans have a decided lack of respect for authority which helps us to protect our freedoms, but is a bit of problem when compliance with rules and regulations is important like a pandemic. Imagine if Trump declared a few weeks ago we suspend all protesting until after the virus is resolved, do you think Americans would have gone along?
The failure of the general population to adhere to safety guidelines has resulted in two outcomes. Attempts by various governors to impose in many cases unconstitutional limits on freedom in order to force compliance to guidelines in the hope of slowing the rate of infection spread. Plus a higher than acceptable transmission rate of the virus especially among the young.
No matter what you read, we can handle the cases that come along and our therapeutics have improved dramatically. The one area where our system is strained is with “proning beds” and ECMO units, both used in the ICUs for the most sick patients that have a chance to recover if given more time to recover.
Our front line health care workers are heroes. I have two daughters working in health care on the front lines. One recently contracted Covid and is at home recovering. She works for Mayo Hospital in their Covid ICU unit with the sickest of the sick in Phoenix. I am very proud of her courage and dedication. But surrounded by fire all day long and you will get burned eventually.
We should begin seeing vaccines this Fall, but not for everyone… for health care workers, at risk people, and essential workers first… others most likely will have to wait till Spring. We don’t have an effective “antiviral”, these are tough to design and could take awhile.
Social distancing and wearing masks outside during daylight hours is very effective. At night or inside less so… Avoid prolonged time around people not living with you… even if you are social distancing and wearing a mask. Avoid crowds outside where people are standing around like protesters… if you insist on protesting, get your sign, put on your mask, an organize a daytime “march”… sunlight and movement are critical.
It is a matter of odds… like my daughter you can practice the best sterilization practices in a top tier hospital and you could still get infected if you surround yourself with Covid patients. For those that are not required by their job to take those risks… don’t.
Public policy experts have made mistakes along the way and they are still learning more about the virus as time passes… but the advice out there now is pretty good… heed it or ignore it at your own peril. Even if you do nothing wrong… bad things can happen like getting hit by a truck on the highway… but the more things you do right, the safer you will be.
Ignore the click bait of daily confirmed cases, it does not mean much. Transmission rates, positivity rates, death rate per million population rates, excess mortality statistics, and hospitalization numbers are useful, but be aware the virus is new and often the data is not being counted accurately. The least corruptible statistic is excess mortality rates. Since it compares projected deaths from all causes expected before the virus hit to actual deaths so it picks up deaths from suicides, deaths not counted as Covid, deaths related to substance abuse, failure to get proper medical care for other health issues, etc. So it measures the impact of the pandemic beyond purely “Covid deaths”.
