A Year of Not Living Dangerously

 It is hard to believe that so many of us have now been sheltering in our homes for an entire year.  And those who have not probably should have.  Had all of us done what the experts had recommended at the outset, the pandemic may not have become as deadly as it has.  To date over 117 million cases of the COVID-19 model coronavirus have been reported worldwide.  While over 66 million have now recovered, the death toll has reached 2.6 million.  In the United States alone there have been 29.1 million reported cases resulting in roughly 525,000 deaths . . . nearly 1/5 of the total deaths worldwide.  There have been ca. 388,000 cases in Maryland with almost 8,000 deaths.  Here in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC there have been 138,607 reported cases and 2,767 deaths.  My town of 8,000 souls has reported 717 cases.  None of this was even imaginable one year ago.  
How many of these cases and deaths could have been prevented if the former administration had taken the threat seriously and listened to what the experts were telling them?   First it called the virus a hoax and then tried to convince the American people it would disappear when the weather turned warm.  That never happened.  The experts recommended social distancing and the wearing of protective masks and still there was push back from the White House that could have been a model for people to follow.  That never happened.  The former president spoke at press conferences and tweeted about untested (and frankly dangerously crackpot) cures for the virus and promised us for months that a vaccine was just around the corner.  That never happened.

It was not until the election and inauguration of a new president that the government began to take the pandemic serious and to listen to the science and the experts.  There is a new urgency as coronavirus variants are emerging worldwide raising many concerns that the virus could spike again if not curbed quickly.  President Biden promised 150 million vaccines in the first 100 days of his new administration.  Despite glitches the vaccines are arriving and being distributed and now 49 days into the new administration the Center for Disease Control has reported that federal data collected since vaccine distribution began in this country on December 14, 2020 indicates that more than 92 million doses have been administered, reaching 18.1% of the total US population.  The US is currently administering over 2.1 million vaccinations daily and at least 31.5 million people have now completed the two dose vaccination regimen.   Even though we are finally moving in the right direction, we are still far from vaccinating the entire US population.   At the current rate, it will take an estimated six months to immunize just 75% of the population with a two-dose vaccine.  We have a long way to go.

Now, just when it appears that we might be turning the tide against the further spread of the coronavirus, individual states are perpetrating a false sense of security and are beginning to prematurely rescind their mandates for social distancing and the wearing of protective masks while reopening public spaces to 100% capacity with no restrictions.  Even so, some of the governors of these renegade states are still urging their citizens to act responsibly and wear masks even though their importance for the spread of the virus is no longer officially recognized.  What are the chances of that?  It seems to me that the moronic response of the former White House to the pandemic is still alive and well in many states across the country, most of which also rate low in the percentages of their populations that have been vaccinated.  With warnings of a possible new spike in cases if public health measures are dropped too early, President Biden has accused these leaders of “neanderthal thinking.”  At a time when this country is still experiencing thousands of new coronavirus cases daily requiring hospitalization and resulting in further deaths, these states have just decided they are tired of the restrictions and are taking action to remove them lock, stock and barrel.  This ignorance does not only endanger these populations, it endangers us all.  This pandemic is not going to be vanquished piecemeal.  It will take all of us working together as we take care of ourselves and those with whom we come in contact.    

I was particularly sickened by videos showing adults urging their children to burn masks on the steps of the Idaho state capitol in Boise . . . a state with one of the highest infection rates in the country.  The Republican state governor has never issued a statewide mask mandate while seven of 44 counties and 11 cities have such mandates in place.  In the past week Republicans in the state legislature have introduced a bill to prohibit mask mandates across Idaho.  I can’t even wrap my head around such an act of wanton irresponsibility.

This pandemic has nothing to do with politics or political affiliations.  The coronoavirus is an unbiased killer.  Yet partisan differences exist .  There are those who agree with health experts who say that social distancing and masks slow the spread of the virus while also believing that only by working collectively can we protect ourselves and one another.  Others believe that government invoked restrictions and mandates limit individual freedoms and endanger our republican form of government.  What they seem to forget is that we are not debating the survival of a form of government.  We are talking about the survival of our population whether it be red or blue.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who serves as the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and is the chief medical advisor to the President Biden (after being ignored and marginalized by the previous president), believes it is still too soon to be canceling public safety measures and reopening businesses to full capacity. “I understand the need to want to get back to normality,” Dr. Fauci said in a recent interview with CNN.  “But you’re only going to set yourself back if you just completely push aside the public health guidelines — particularly when we’re dealing with anywhere from 55 (thousand) to 70,000 infections per day in the United States.”   Who would you listen to?

My wife and I have both had our first dose of the Moderna vaccine and we return in a couple weeks for our second and final one.  Whereas we are happy to take this important step in protecting ourselves and others, we both also realize that this is no panacea for the immediate eradication of the coronavirus.  We will still need to practice social distancing and continue to wear protective masks in many situations.  You are not free if you are dead.  And what about the freedom from danger for others who are impacted by those who refuse to comply?    

So here we are a year later and still wondering if the end of the pandemic is in sight.   We are all tired of the isolation and loneliness.   We all miss our families and our friends.   We all miss the things we used to take for granted that we are now unable to do, or only after logical and logistical planning.   We all miss traveling, and going out to eat, or to the movies or a concert.  But the only way we will ever get back to whatever will be the “new normal,” we are all going to have to trust each other and work together to do what is necessary to restore the health of our country and our neighbors near and far.    
 
There is an old Chinese proverb that tells us that one moment of patience may ward off great disaster, but one moment of impatience may ruin a whole life.   Former president
John Quincy Adams perhaps said it best.  “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”  As we take note of the first anniversary of this health crisis, I say we should remain patient and work together for the common good.   Don’t forget.  We are all in the same boat.