100,000+ Americans are dead: It’s not OK
1st June 2020 · 0 Comments
It’s accurate to say that more than 100,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus and that may be the milestone we’ll hear about for quite some time, even as hundreds more perish daily, because people are dying so fast from this viral infection that the numbers are mercurial.
Last Thursday morning, Johns Hopkins University reported 100,057 deaths. In a matter of minutes, the total jumped to 100,656, another site reported 102,293 deaths, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington is predicting 132,000 deaths by mid-August.
But no matter how high the coronavirus death toll climbs, the loss of so many American lives is not OK.
Americans was “It’s sad.” It’s not OK that he is playing golf, rolling around in fake conspiracy theories, using the pandemic as a cover for destroying our democracy, engaging in voter suppression tactics, and taking a sledgehammer to our First Amendment rights.
But by far, the worst thing about Trump’s do nothing coronavirus agenda is that he is heartless, oblivious to the suffering of each and every one of the 100,000+ families that have lost loved ones.
We have all lost loved ones at one time or another. And those who have can tell you that the pain of loss never ceases. You move on but you still mourn. Those who have lost spouses feel their hearts breaking with every passing day, as do those who have lost children, parents, siblings and relatives.
News analysts and political observers have been looking back on what could have been, how such an embarrassing loss could have been avoided. They say that if Trump had stepped up and ordered a national stay at home order during the first week of March, 54,000 people would still be alive.
No amount of hindsight hand wringing and blame placing will bring our fellow Americans back. So, the question becomes, how do we stop more Americans from dying? What can and should we be doing right now? Just saying “It’s sad,” isn’t going to cut it.
We now know that the coronavirus is here to stay. We must live with it, yes, but should we be running around without masks, pretending that it’s over and all is well? No. What we must do is not listen to anything Donald Trump recommends, advises, or suggests because he is a bigger virus than corona, and he will get us killed, if we follow his advice.
Even if we don’t want to listen to the health experts, let’s at least listen to our own common sense. Even if we don’t want to wear masks, we should do it, if only to protect our loved ones. People have a right not to comply with “recommendations,” but they don’t have a right to endanger others because they choose to do the wrong thing.
New Orleans has lost 495 residents to the coronavirus. Mayor Cantrell is doing what she can to contain the virus. Cantrell was among the first big city mayors to implement testing of every citizen seeking a test.
The stay at home order worked to flatten the curve in Louisiana but as the state reopens, we will see increases in cases, hospitalizations and even death. And God forbid that we witness out of control viral spikes and uncontrollable spread of the coronavirus after fully reopening. As of May 27, a total of 347,647 coronavirus tests had been conducted in Louisiana with 38,497 positive results and 2,617 deaths.
We can only hope that Louisiana’s elected officials have a plan for containing and living with the coronavirus.
We really can’t depend solely on testing and contact tracing. At 300 tests per day, it will take nearly four years to test everyone in New Orleans, and given the nature of this disease, we don’t have that kind of time.
What our leaders should do is strengthen the containment plans. Masks must be mandatory, hand washing, physical distancing and testing.
However, the last step for containment seems not to be regulated properly or monitored. Experts say people who test positive, if they are not sick enough to be hospitalized, should be self-quarantined for at least two weeks.
And therein lies the problem. What good is quarantine if you’re at home with three other people? And if you don’t have a basement, which most of us in New Orleans lack, you’re up the creek without a paddle. Reports suggest that COVID-19 spreads among household members are leading to community spread.
Maybe, if we’re really serious about stopping the spread of this deadly pandemic, just maybe we should follow the containment plan of Hong Kong and other countries: When they detected positive cases, the government put the affected persons in isolation, in a facility outside of their homes.
The answer is not to act as if the pandemic is over and that since the “curve is flattening” that the coronavirus is contained. It’s not. And it won’t be until we take the desperate measures that these desperate times mandate, until a cure, vaccine or effective treatment is found.
Mayor Cantrell fought for and oversaw the standing up of a field hospital in the Convention Center for coronavirus patients. So, it shouldn’t be too hard to find places (the old VA Hospital, Charity Hospital or hotels), where people with mild coronavirus infections or asymptomatic people who test positive can be placed into temporary isolation.
Each of us is responsible for our own health and, during this viral pandemic, we must not endanger the lives of the people with who we interact. Hence the masks and other safety measures.
However, our elected officials are responsible for the overall public health of the communities they serve. Each life lost represents a person who contributed to society, who voted, who bought and consumed the goods and services provided by the business sector, who leaves an entire family in mourning to recover mentally from both the pandemic and the loss of life.
Our elected officials can and should do much more to stop people from dying from the coronavirus. That should be their top priority.
This article originally published in the June 1, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
