The novel coronavirus (‘novel’ simply means this is a new strain in humans) has reached Arizona.
As of Saturday, March 14, Arizona has twelve confirmed cases of Covid-19. Scary enough, many of those cases came from one family, and a health worker whose original Covid-19 exposure remains a mystery.
We have large numbers of senior citizens and red-state Trump supporters who bought into the Faux News ‘virus hoax’ story. They didn’t take it seriously enough, early enough.
We have great hospitals, but not enough beds/ventilators/other supplies for the projected casualties *if the US follows Italy’s pandemic path*. We are right now where Italy was two weeks ago.
Where we go from here depends on reducing the spread of the virus through our population.
Right now our fates are ruled by social distancing. But some people simply won’t be able to hunker down in their homes for two to three weeks.
If the virus has a mortality rate of one-to-four percent, we’re looking at thousands of Covid-19 deaths in the next few weeks.
We don’t even have enough tests to get a baseline idea of the virus’s true spread. We could have as many as 1200-1700 undocumented cases.
Our inaction will also cause the deaths of people with non-viral conditions (heart attack, stroke, cancer, accident, etc.) who won’t be able to get hospital attention because of healthcare shortages.
We’re already seeing many of our vulnerable senior citizens happily pivot from ‘virus hoax’ to ‘foreign virus invasion’, with all the attending xenophobia.
The Trump administration has failed on so many policies. The Dunning-Kruger gaffes at every level have not only endangered people, but have put America’s own future at risk.
And yet, my elderly, Trumpvoting coworkers and family members are *still* saying ‘this is no worse than the flu’ or ‘we will survive, America always survives’.
Covid-19 won’t kill our country, but it creates dangerous weaknesses that could make other disasters much worse.
Our state and local governments are doing the right thing by canceling festivals and large gatherings.
People are beginning to understand social distancing:
Avoid large gatherings. Stay at least three feet from people when you are out in the world. Wear a mask only if you’re coughing (they create a false sense of security; hoarding masks takes vital protection from healthcare professionals.)
Wash your hands often. Try not to touch your face, eyes, and nose.
I can only hope we practice these steps carefully enough to help slow down the virus.
Stay safe, everyone. Down here in South Australia, we have a relatively small number of cases reported. New South Wales is the worst hit so far. Large events are being cancelled, and people are staying home if they can. Here’s hoping that everyone does the right thing and our health services don’t get overwhelmed – wherever we live in the world.
I worry about places where there isn’t clean water and soap.
I worry about innocent people paying the price for idiots. The idiots themselves, not so much.