In discussing the coronavirus pandemic, one of my friends sighed, "I just want this to be over." A sentiment shared by all of us, I'm sure. I expressed my doubts that all this will ever be "over." I think that mask will still be required in certain places from now until...like...forever. And as a society we will always be suspicious when we're in the presence of someone with a cough or cold. Our economy may never fully recover and return to the pre-pandemic glory days. To the dismay of parents nationwide, kids may never go away to college anymore now that online classes are not only "a thing" the *the* thing. The nests will stay full and jobless junior may never move out, living in the basement, playing video games and intending on inheriting the house upon his parents' (surely accelerated) demise.
On the other hand, some "medical experts" say that the coronavirus will become like the common cold or flu: an annoyance we'll all just have to live with (pun intended) as we move forward. It is obviously not a hugely fatal disease - I think we can admit that now - although a shit-ton of people have died from it worldwide (or so they say). Older people with the infamous "comorbidities" will probably always have to be cautious and accept the fact that they may still get the COVID and they may still die "from" it, especially if they're in their 90's and get hit by a bus. My advice: Don't get old.
Apparently, Texas Governor Abbott feels the same way as my fatigued friend in the first paragraph. Abbott is lifting the mask mandate in his state, and has expressed his desire to get Texas 100% open, 100% now. This, even as the scaredy-cat mayor of Austin is calling on the governor to continue and extend existing restrictions.
So is this smart of Governor Abbott? The spread of the disease does appear to be abating here in the U.S., but Italy and Brazil are seeing increases in the number of new coronavirus cases. And our amigos in France? After peaking at nearly 89,000 new cases per day in early November of 2020 (merde!), France has seen a decrease but is still chugging along at around 20,000 new cases per day, showing no signs of slowing down.
So...I dunno. The sad, ugly truth is probably that X-number of people were always going to die from this coronavirus and, vaccine or no vaccine, there wasn't a whole lot any government could do about it. And so we'll see - probably shortly - if Texas Governor Abbott is right or wrong.
6 comments:
Our state completely opened up and eliminated the mask mandate two weeks ago. Fortunately I guess, it affects me little. I occasionally go shopping and go out for a meal, but I'm rarely in places where you can't be six feet from other people. The things that I have done in the past such as attend plays and music events where six feet spacing is not practical still haven't rescheduled and I think they will be slow to come back despite the state being opened back up without restrictions. I do see myself going to them in the future but I also can see myself wearing a mask again in those situations, not because I'm worried about getting Covid per se, but because this past year I've been as healthy as I can ever remember having not got a single cold or flu bug. Since I don't enjoy those things, wearing a mask on a handful of crowded events I attend a year seems like a worthwhile thing.
I honestly think we are reaching herd immunity and that is why the U.S. positivity rate is in decline. Around me, those that haven't worn masks have mostly had the disease and recovered and a large chunk of those that wear masks as well. The older population, the ones that have a significant chance of dying are now mostly vaccinated. Really all that is left is the young ones and they don't seem to pass if very efficiently compared to adults. I suspect if one compares the U.S. to other countries that currently have high rates, those countries were ones that had more strict measures in place and were largely more successful in slowing down the disease than we were.
I guess I disagree that X-number were always going to die from it anyway because I have seen a lot of elderly in my life that were prime death candidates but were able to avoid it long enough to get vaccinated, my grandmother included. By doing this, we hopefully bought her another few years of life and for me anyway, that was worth it. But I do agree that the battle is probably not over for my grandmother and while she may temporarily immune, she may still die from this disease at some point in the coming years even if it is just another cold for me.
As you may or may not know, both of my wife's parents died from COVID complications in November, 13 days apart. They were both in their early 90s and he already had all kinds of health problems, but she was doing great. I have a lot of thoughts on it that won't go into here, but like Ed, I don't agree a lot of folks were just destined to die from it. And I think if we as a nation had handled it differently, we wouldn't have a half million people dead from it. But that's just me. Thankfully, the vaccine is here and cases are dropping. Always enjoy reading your posts, Bob.
Ed and Bob, I do appreciate your input. And Bob, I did not know about your parents. I'm so sorry to hear that. You have my deepest sympathies. It makes this whole coronavirus issue very personal and painful for you, I'm sure.
But that "half-a-million dead from COVID!" number that we often hear is...I think...debatable. Deaths from regular old flu are down, probably because those who would have died from the flu instead got the coronavirus and ended up in the "COVID19" column. So we'd have to look at how many *additional* deaths we had in the U.S. in 2020 versus the average from previous years.
Although the final numbers for 2020 won't be available for a while, it appears that roughly 334,000 more people died in 2020 than in 2019. Can *all* of those 334,000 be attributed to the coronavirus? I'd be skeptical if anyone tried to say that was true. Also, I'm sure there were people who died of complications or issues resulting from the pandemic who never actually had COVID19. (My statistician friends say it's likely an insignificant amount.)
But the question remains: Could any of the actual COVID19 deaths in 2020 have been prevented? Well, given what we've learned about how to treat the virus (as opposed to what we thought in the beginning), and given the number of people who can walk around *with* the virus without showing any symptoms at all, I'm not sure that the number of COVID19 deaths could have been reduced all that much. At least, not without implementing nationwide mandatory testing, which would have gone over like a lead balloon with the American public (not that our government, federal and local, were ever prepared to take on such a task).
Continued...
I agree that being Americans with a huge independent streak, there probably wasn't much we could do to prevent what we have been going through or changed the numbers much. Probably the only thing I would have done differently if I were President for the day was to issue some sort of nationwide guidelines instead of letting states do it piecemeal. Normally I am for state rights over the federal government but in the case of national security, I think I would say a pandemic falls under this category. I think a number of deaths, wouldn't say the majority or anywhere close, are due to the fact that we had an inconsistent message from the top and for a time, nobody knew what to believe, and to some extent, some still don't know.
I just have to correct your last point that I think scientists have been really consistent when saying that the mask doesn't keep you from getting Covid but it protects others from getting Covid when you might be asymptomatic. The only mask that changes that equation a bit is a N95 mask which we are being asked to not wear so that health care workers can attempt to avoid getting Covid.
Actually Ed, that's what I said: Wearing a mask doesn't protect *me* from inhaling the virus; it merely inhibits my ability to transmit it to someone else...IF I HAVE IT.
A local doctor got in my Uber one morning and chuckled at the very basic mask I was wearing. "Heh, that doesn't do anything," he said. Then he handed me an "N95" mask. The darned thing has an outlet vent built into it! That means that the N95 mask might protect *me* from inhaling the virus, but it certainly doesn't prevent me from spreading it! Seems kind of counter-productive if you axe me. At least my little blue Walmart mask "sort of" keeps me from spewing my coronavirus germs all throughout my car.
So I laugh when I see my neighbors come out of their houses and walk to the curb to check their mail - WHILE THEY"RE WEARING A MASK! Or I see joggers or bicyclists chugging along wearing masks. I think to myself, "Where are you people getting your information from?" Clearly, the American public is getting mixed or muddied messages about this disease. And to some degree I think it's deliberate.
I will say this much: I'm 65. I *never* get the flu - ever. In fact, I rarely get sick at all...of anything. That said, I do not worry about "catching the corona." If I do start to feel sick, specifically in my upper respiratory region, I know what to do. I ain't gonna tough it out.
But since wearing a mask is a condition of employment for ride-share drivers, I wear it. If a store has a sign requiring shirts, shoes and masks, then I'll wear the stupid mask. But I would be perfectly comfortable going about my day-to-day activities without wearing a mask.
I think it's wrong for the media to focus solely on infection rates. The death rate is what's really important. And the death rate from COVID19 seems to be going down, even when infection rates go up. That means we're getting better at treating the disease.
I apologize. I misread that statement.
I too shake my head at the countless television interviews of people with their mask down below their nose or the person driving all by themselves with their mask on. Maybe they just forget about it but I take mine off every chance I get to breath in some nice fresh, unfiltered, midwest air. I haven't been out much this spring but last fall, the trails were full of people wearing masks as well as masks littering the ground all along the trails. They are becoming the new cigarette butts.
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