Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Coronavirus Opinion

My opinion on this appears to be unpopular; however, one-on-one conversations reveal I am maybe not as alone in this as I thought. I can't help but wonder if this virus hasn't been around for a few months because I know so many who were ill with flu like symptoms in December for weeks and weeks. All of them ended up with respiratory symptoms. My own double ear infection and sinus infection in February was left with a warning that most patients were ending up with respiratory illnesses next.

I have a distrust of the media as a whole. Not since 9/11 have the news outlets seen ratings like they are currently. Three weeks post 9/11, I turned off the news indefinitely because I recognized the fear they thrived on and realized I was sinking under the weight of it all.

But 9/11 served as a teaching moment for our country. We learned we weren't safe in airplanes and inconvenient changes were implemented. However, after the fog lifted, we all overcame that fear and started booking flights again.

Forty-three kids a day are diagnosed with childhood cancer in the United States. Seven children a day die in this country from childhood cancer. If the media reported each and every death and diagnosis with the same fervor they are reporting Covid-19, we would all be convinced our children were at serious, imminent risk of getting cancer. But perhaps some funding would finally be filtered toward a cure?

The same holds true for auto accidents. Again, fatality rates are high and if they are focused on with up-to-the-minute reporting. Would we fear driving?

And the flu? 12,000 people in the United States died from the flu this past flu season alone. And here's the kicker. Anyone ill during flu season who see a doctor are given a flu test. Those sick with covid-19 symptoms cannot get tested unless they have traveled or are ill enough to be hospitalized. Clearly, the fatality rate will be higher if we are only testing a select few and not counting the people who are also ill but are recovering well at home. We know two people first hand with that story. Furthermore we know two who tested positive because they are medical providers who were exposed. Neither of those people have had symptoms and are nearing the end of their quarantine period.

I am not saying we shouldn't do our part to prevent spreading known illnesses but this should be a given regardless of a pandemic.  What concerns me is the reaction based on fear, not a response based on facts and logic. The shutdown of the country as a whole to flatten a curve we haven't had the ability to fully test will result in a recession and have lasting detrimental consequences. We don't have genuine data to make these decisions and yet our leaders have made significant moves toward shutting down our country. I question what criteria defines when it is time to quarantine and when it will be clear to resume life as usual.

I am choosing to hunker down with my family and spend time reading, writing and deep cleaning. Kroger Clicklist has become the real MVP in my world because I am trying to honor the community effort to control the spread but that is mostly because most every opinion in this country is so binary; in that if you don't support this, you are the problem. Doctors are shutting down health offices and businesses are closing because if they don't, they fear backlash. The same holds for schools, even though at this point, the decision has been removed from our individual school's hands. (If nothing else comes from this mess, hopefully the community will remember how much our teachers provide beyond test scores.) It's somewhat like our last presidential election. If you voted for one candidate over another, you were labeled a racist. We don't make room for opposing opinions and unlike post 9/11, we are no longer united.

Our tv remains off. I need social media distancing. The negativity and fear mongering is out of control and whereas I can't control anything beyond my response to the madness, I encourage others to consider the source of their fear and ask where they seek peace.

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