COVID Impressions in Book Seven: Reconstruction 2020

It is interesting. I hear a lot of people essentially screaming, “I AM TIRED OF TALKING ABOUT COVID!” And I get it. A meme I like says, “This month has been a hell of a decade!” We’re all looking forward “to the other side of this”. Honestly. But as we have to remind people about so many things… just because we WANT something to be true doesn’t MAKE it true.

(1) Saw people saying “We should be focusing on COVID recovery numbers, not death tolls!” I am… admittedly conflicted about this statement. We should ABSOLUTELY be celebrating recovery numbers. Yes. We should remember to celebrate the good. But I get VERY hung up on the word not. There are still people that are calling this “unnecessary over-panic”. But here is the deal… if we all actually DID take this seriously? If every single person besides medical staff stayed home for 14 days… and medical staff and those they were in contact with had no opportunity to spread infection for 30 days? This would be done. But we aren’t doing that, seem entirely incapable of that, and are mostly guaranteeing that this will stay with us through May (at least). SO… I think it is very irresponsible for anyone to suggest that we not talk about the death toll since it is climbing and a major concern. This is yet another time where I say… I get it. People are scared. People are freaking out. People don’t want to hear death toll numbers. The same thing happens in times of war. We’d rather NOT hear the bad news and pretend it doesn’t exist. But it does. And we need to address it. Find solutions. Honor the dead and work to make sure we all aren’t doing things that will add more to their numbers.
In Summation: We should be discussing the recovery numbers… and discuss the treatments and actions that helped them recover. But we can’t stop talking about the death toll. Especially because in times like these… we honestly NEED to be uncomfortable. We need to stay vigilant.

(2) There are folks who have turned back to “Fuck all of you for panicking this is inconveniencing me!” I just… I can’t imagine that level of apathy or selfishness. I get that this is huge. I get that people’s entire lives are being re-written by this. The Seniors who won’t have their last track season? All of the people who won’t have a graduation ceremony? People who have to postpone their weddings? Their baptisms? People who saved their entire lives to go on that ONE TRIP they always wanted to and now can’t. People who are going to miss out for being there for an important birth or miss the chance to say a final goodbye to a dying loved one? I appreciate, understand, and accept that this whole thing is certainly inconveniencing people. But the truth of what is going on matters.

Think of it this way… let’s say you REALLY want to say goodbye to your dying relative… and they are dying already so it doesn’t really matter, right? So… screw Social Distancing and Stay Home Orders. You find a way to get (say) from Springfield to Columbus to visit your dying relative (somehow). You may not know you are sick with COVID, but you come into contact with someone and get them sick. That person decides that they refuse to miss the birth of their first grandchild and travels from Columbus to Franklin. While they are visiting… both Grandparent and Baby test positive for COVID and die. Now.. maybe all of that sounds too far-fetched and too contrived for you. Maybe the idea of your actions resulting in the death of two people doesn’t bother you in any way. Maybe you’re certain that no matter the consequences, you (or people like you) should never be inconvenienced at all, especially to this degree! Well… that reminds me of something we say about drunk driving.... a drunk driver can (a) get home safe, (b) crash their car doing no injury to themselves but damaging their car, (c) crash their car injuring themself and no one else, (d) crash their car killing themselves but nobody else, (e) crash their car doing no injury to themselves but damaging someone else’s property, (f) crash their car doing no injury to themselves but injuring someone else, (g) crash their car doing no injury to themselves but killing someone else, (h) crash their car injuring themselves and the other person, (i) crash their car killing themselves and the other person. SO that is 9 different possibilities… of those, 5 cause damage/harm/death to others and 5 cause damage/harm/death to themselves. ONLY 1 of those possibilities exists that does no damage to anyone or anything. AND YET… every night all over the united states there are hundreds… maybe thousands of people driving around drunk.