COVID: A FAILURE OF COMMON SENSE BY U.S. GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY
On December 3 , 2020 2,762 new deaths occurred from Covid-19, for a total of 272,525 deaths according to the CDC website. 2,762 more mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, and brothers died. Yet the significance of that number has escaped the American public so let’s put it into a perspective all can appreciate: terrorists killed 2,977 on 9/11/01 yet we (our government and ourselves) have facilitated the deaths of almost the same number of Americans on a daily basis with a lot less shock and concern. Our daily death total from the virus will soon eclipse that record number of terrorism deaths that rocked this nation, and it will continue to do so every day for the next few months at a minimum if projections are correct.
On 12/2, the Director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield speaking at a US Chamber of Commerce event said: “The reality is December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult in the public health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that’s going to be put on our health-care system.” According to media, U.S. hospitalizations stand at an all-time high (100,667 across the country per the Covid Tracking Project at The Atlantic as of 12/4), 14,000,000 in the U.S. are infected and 274,000 have died [NOTE: this number is higher than that of the CDC cited above; can’t we even get accurate statistics of deaths?].
We are the richest country in the world yet we are suffering the worst effects of the pandemic in the world (infections, deaths) and it is getting worse. We may suffer as many as 500,000 deaths from Covid by March. After 9/11 people were afraid of going to public places and we even willingly accommodated our lives to a color-coded fear gauge. We, as a unified nation, relied on our government to keep us safe and followed its advice. Yet today, although we face an invisible enemy that is far more dangerous and devastating than 9/11 we haven’t shown anything close to the same concern, fear, or respect for the danger posed by the virus. Why? How did we get here?
Before I answer it’s important to state that I am a centrist, with allegiance to no “side” (I don’t belong to any political party or have any “agenda”). I simply read a lot, from sources Google News directs me to, and from many other sources, all with differing perspectives, e.g., The Wash Post, NYT, Washington Times, Fox News, CNBC, and even CNN. I am not pro/anti Trump or Biden; both have plusses and minuses (worthy of discussion later). So, “factual” errors if any in what I write it is not the result of bias; it is from incorrect information given the public by the media. My interpretation of that information is fair game.
The crisis we find ourselves in is of our own making. To identify the actual culprits does not require voluminous research and it makes no difference what media you follow or the political party or ideas you support. We are here because of a lack of common sense; it was ignored by (1) our government, because of negligence; and (2) by our society, because of selfishness.
NEGLIGENT GOVERNMENT. If you look at the countries who have handled pandemic the best, those quick to require masks and follow social distancing have fared the best. For example:
According to Fortune on Oct 30, 2020: “While many countries around the world are hitting new highs in coronavirus cases, Taiwan has achieved a different kind of record — 200 days without a locally transmitted case. Taiwan holds the world’s best virus record by far and reached the new landmark on Thursday, even as the pathogen explodes anew in Europe and the U.S. Taiwan’s last local case came on April 12; there has been no second wave. What did this island of 23 million people do right? It has had 553 confirmed cases, with only seven deaths. Experts say closing borders early and tightly regulating travel have gone a long way toward fighting the virus. Other factors include rigorous contact tracing, technology-enforced quarantine and widespread mask wearing. Further, Taiwan’s deadly experience with SARS has scared people into compliance… Taiwan will likely be among the few economies to grow this year, with the government in August forecasting that the gross domestic product will expand 1.56% in 2020… There is also punishment — those who break quarantine face fines of up to NT$1million ($35,000).” [Note: bold, italics and underline added]. https://fortune.com/2020/10/31/taiwan-best-covid-response/
Can anyone deny that common sense dictated we follow (at some point) Taiwan’s unbelievably successful approach (7 deaths for 23M people!)? Instead, our government failed and refused to make the hard decisions or correct their errors when discovered. There was no unified messaging at the national, state and local levels as the virus was politicized to the point of damaging trust in the CDC and its pronouncements. Surely it was to be expected that as time progressed and we learned more about the virus, advice and solutions would change. But our government allowed masks to become a political issue in an election year — an unforgiveable error — and then failed to take the necessary actions to fix the error and educate its citizens on what was necessary to minimize the loss of life and disruption to our economy. Instead, too many officials opted to wait for a vaccine they knew was close to a year away at best (which alone would be a record achievement as they usually take many years) or gave us incorrect advice for political reasons. We received conflicting messages from different government officials at the same time about the seriousness of the virus and what was necessary; we got half-hearted measures to stem its transmission, such as partial closures of businesses known to be “spreaders” (what difference does it make to close a bar at 10:00 instead of midnight?); and disgustingly, there were too many instances of high profile government figures disregarding the rules imposed upon us — some violating mandates they themselves imposed. We even had police officials refusing to enforce protective measures because they personally objected (even though no court had authorized any such blatant disregard of duty). The public was utterly confused and “sides” developed on how to fight the virus, which were based upon politics and not science or experience in other countries. In short, the public was never convinced how serious the virus was and what measures needed to be taken to stem its transmission (vs. what occurred in Taiwan for example), and government failed to protect us — it’s priority responsibility — and ensure we did everything reasonably necessary to avoid a catastrophe.
Even as we approach the potential failure of our healthcare system from inundation, there is still no unified message in this country and in most jurisdictions government continues to ask — not require — the necessary conduct. One would think that in a national health emergency most officials would rise above their political self-interest to try to save lives and the healthcare system. But look around the country and see how many government officials are doing their “duty” — making the tough decisions in the best interest of the public at large. And some of those who are finally “stepping up” find themselves fighting an uphill battle to convince their constituents that what they advocate is correct and scientifically proven (and that other states or politicians are incorrect) while they fight off lawsuits and in some cases attempts to impeach them. I live in FL, where we now have the third highest number of total confirmed cases in the country after Texas and California, according to the New York Times COVID-19 database. Yet the acts and omissions of our government at the state level reveal a level of negligence (and “sticking your head in the sand”) that at a minimum serves as a model for what not to do now and in future pandemics.
FL Governor Ron DeSantis opened the state to Phase 3 in late Sept. (as if there was no pandemic to be concerned about) and allows it to continue today despite the daily increases in infections and deaths and the dire predictions for the next few months. At that time, he also extended his directive that limited local COVID restrictions, forced cities to reopen bars and nightclubs, and prohibited them from collecting fines for mask and curfew violations. In short, he took away local control and basically pretends there is nothing to be concerned about. He refuses to discuss his policies with local officials who are dealing with growing infection rates and hospitalizations in their locales. Miami-Dade’s new mayor-elect announced on 12/4 that she could not get a call with him (as have other authorities in other FL jurisdictions) even as Miami-Dade has a 40% increase in hospitalizations, 10% testing positivity rate up from 6% a few weeks prior, and an announced lack of adequate staffing in local hospitals. The Governor is too busy to return calls while his policies are contrary to the recommendations of the CDC, most accepted and verified scientific evidence worldwide, and the dire state of many countries in Europe whose Covid situations tend to precede ours by a few weeks and produce similar results. His policies support the theory of achieving “herd immunity” by doing nothing — as if Covid does not exist — even though such theory has been disproven internationally (and scientifically), most significantly and admittedly by Sweden. But as a member of our “political elite” continuing on this disproven course poses no risk to him personally: the Governor and his family will not be the ones dying. As “political elite” they will get the best hospital care possible if they become infected even though FL hospitals are overrun as a result of his policies.
SOCIETAL SELFISHNESS. Too many of us have been unwilling to inconvenience ourselves for the benefit of society at large — even temporarily. Just look at Thanksgiving. Even though public officials pleaded for weeks for people not to travel over the Thanksgiving holidays, according to CNN, “US air travel hit its highest level since mid-March over the holiday and millions of Americans still travelled by car to join family and friends…[and] more than 9.4 million people have been screened [by TSA] in the Thanksgiving travel window, which began on Friday before the holiday”. While this traveling indicts all age groups, I believe the majority of the blame for selfish conduct falls on the younger generations. Their refusal to wear masks and social distance has been well documented and is significantly responsible for the spread of the virus. The most successful countries fighting the virus (e.g., Taiwan) asked their citizens to adopt conduct to slow the spread of the virus and the majority responded. Ours didn’t.
For my fellow citizens who do not believe the mountains of evidence — including peer-reviewed scientific studies and successes in other countries — proving masks lessen the spread of the virus, common sense alone indicates that a mask will prevent or lessen the passing of aerosols between people. So, as scientists worldwide generally agree Covid is most often transmitted as an aerosol, and a mask limits the transmission of aerosols, what other proof of the benefit of masks is needed? It’s even been reported that the seasonal flu is down this year because of masks. So why do we still have so many people objecting to masks?
Those who object alleging it’s an “abuse of their civil rights” fail to acknowledge that our civil rights are (and have always been) balanced against the circumstances. They are temporarily suspended in the event of major threats such as riots, pandemics, and terrorist threats (e.g., curfews, quarantines, and even suspension of habeas corpus and martial law). More importantly, is there actually a right to be mask-free? I know the Supreme Court has not yet declared it to be a right guaranteed by the Constitution. But assuming arguendo it is such a “right”, what infringement upon it is too much to limit infecting one’s fellow citizens or becoming infected oneself (which may require hospitalization and potentially over-burden the healthcare system), during a life-and-death health emergency? Admittedly there is no “correct” answer; balancing rights is a sliding scale and reasonable people can disagree about the degree of infringement permissible under the circumstances, and the answer can change as the facts change. For example, lockdowns. Definitely a strong argument against confinement can be made except for in the direst of circumstances. But simply being required to wear a mask indoors and/or when within 6-feet of another person? Is that really an unreasonable imposition on that sliding scale when considering the alternative? Does some potential discomfort outweigh the harm that can be caused by aerosol transmission of the virus? The answer should not even be a close call. Yet amazingly both the outcry against being required to wear a mask, as well as the outright refusal of many to wear a mask indoors whether mandated or not, continue in too many areas of this country today.
The photos of young people in bars without masks at this time is appalling. Unless you attribute such conduct to continued ignorance after all this time (which is a very scary thought in this age of social media and facts available at your fingertips), such conduct says “We don’t care” if we infect our more-at-risk family members when we interact with them after leaving the bar, OR if we over-burden the healthcare system from infections we cause, OR that healthcare workers have been working non-stop for months with no relief in sight because we can’t inconvenience ourselves to stop “partying” during a national crisis. Are Americans really that self-centered and selfish?
Also, apparently young people continue to incorrectly believe that Covid is just “another flu” which for them passes quickly and often with little suffering. According to the NY Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/05/health/covid-natural-immunity.html ), “As many as one in three people who recover from Covid have chronic complaints, including exhaustion and a racing heart, for months afterward. This includes people under 35 with no previous health conditions. Some survivors of Covid also show troubling signs that their body has turned on itself, with symptoms similar to those of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.” Damage to the lungs, heart, vascular system and brain have been clearly identified — but how long that damage lasts has yet to be positively determined. We are not providing MRIs to every recovered Covid patient and because of cost are unlikely to ever do so. But as dead cells in the brain and lungs have been identified in recovered patients, the damage could be permanent (as happened from the Spanish Flu in 1918). Covid is not just a flu. Regardless of what is behind their unreasonable behavior, the fact is that, like secondhand smoke, not wearing a mask in a bar or elsewhere puts more than the non-wearer at risk of getting Covid; for some it is a death sentence and a very lonely and nasty way to die.
CONCLUSION
Simple application of common sense could have avoided the situation in which we now find ourselves. But that’s history now. We have a crisis that is worsening daily yet we still lack unified messaging, have feckless politicians refusing to admit errors or take actions to save lives, and a public at large who either does not understand the true emergency we have (despite the info being blasted over the Internet), or worse they are illiterate, ignorant or hedonistic to a fault. But if we apply common sense ourselves now, hopefully we can avoid further lockdowns and the extensive damage they cause. We must avoid what happened in Europe where officials were left with the choice between lockdowns or destruction of their healthcare systems.
Above I have stated published facts. Common sense says ignore the advice of minority fringe advocates who deny the overwhelming scientific knowledge we now possess: WEAR A MASK!. Common sense says that where public officials lack the courage to close the bars and other places known to be “spreaders” — don’t go there! Common sense says that if you ignore the previous common sense advice you are more likely to get the virus, and your chances of receiving standard quality care are now diminished making your recovery more difficult. Should you be fortunate enough not end up as one the 500,000 Americans projected to be dead by March, your nightmare may be just beginning not ending because of after-effects. Lastly, should you infect a loved one who dies because you had to “party” or were otherwise negligent, you will carry that burden with you for the rest of your life.
There are too many areas of life today where common sense is no longer applied, leaving us with questionable if not absurd outcomes and situations. Failure to apply it to Covid has left us with extensive deaths, illness, and economic suffering that will take a long time to heal (if ever). The fringes on both the left and the right have had the podium too long. It’s time for common sense, common courtesy, and truth to prevail again. For my part, I intend to help that occur by continuing to post “Common Sense” pieces applying common sense and unbiased truth to issues of the day. I hope you will follow along and provide me your feedback. If enough of us get back on the “common sense path”, perhaps we can heal the dangerous and nasty divide that currently exists in this country.
Mr. Common Sense
