Can I Be Serious For A Moment? About Coronavirus, I Mean

I may have done some lighthearted joking around about this coronavirus mess, especially when it comes to what some perceive as the government’s overreaction in wanting all American citizens to “just stay home” for the next few weeks and not do anything…you know…sociable. But I need to be serious for a moment.

COVID-19 attacks the respiratory system. One of the common results is pneumonia. In serious cases, patients need to be hospitalized and put on ventilators that helps them breathe. And let us remember, right now there is no cure…not even a vaccine that can prevent coronavirus! And no real treatment protocol for it, either.  

We need to think that through.

Let’s say I get the coronavirus. Now, I consider myself a superhero because “I never get sick!” (he says). But the fact is that I’m 64 and not exactly the picture of health. Let’s say that my lungs - ravaged by years of relentless cigarette and pot-smoking – let’s say they’re affected to the point that I need hospitalization. It’s not a stretch of anyone’s imagination. So I trundle myself off to Sacred Heart Hospital just down the road, where I get admitted and stuck on a ventilator.

But let’s also say that my doctor contracts coronavirus too. And since he’s older and more important to society than me, he needs to be hospitalized and put on a ventilator. Since the number of ventilators is not unlimited, guess who gets the ventilator before I do? It would be a tough choice for any hospital to make, but if I were running the place, even I would give it to the doctor.

Doctors, nurses and health care practitioners are not immune from this coronavirus. In fact, they are even more susceptible to it than you and me, because they deal with sick people every day. I deal with mentally ill people, but so far that's not as contagious as the COVID-19.

THIS is why we need to slow down the spread of the coronavirus…so that our health care system is not overwhelmed by patients with respiratory issues for which the treatment options are so limited.

Below is a short, but pretty scary YouTube video of just what happens when you contract the coronavirus. When you consider the number of people in this country who might get it, and then think about the number of those ventilators and respirators that hospitals might (or might not) have, you’ll understand how very important it is for us to self-quarantine and do what the government is suggesting. I may think of myself as bulletproof, but even Kryptonite can kill Superman.  I don’t want to get sick, and I surely don't want our health care professionals getting sick.