Our Government is Choosing Money over Public Health

This pandemic has been hard on every single one of us and life is not what it once was for any American in this country, or the world for that matter and likely will not be for some time to come, this is a fact that we all should by this point agree on, if we are to agree on anything.

Whether you have been impacted financially by losing your job or having your business close down, or you have become sick with this virus, or you have lost a loved one to this horrible illness, or simply you just feel isolated and want things to go back to how they were before.

It is hard on every single one of us.

We all want to go back to doing what we love to do, to do what makes us happy, to feed our families, and to return to some sense of normalcy again, but to do so when it is not safe is both wrong and insane and yet, our leaders in the government on all levels are choosing economics and money over the health and safety of the American people.

I use the term “leaders” loosely to describe the folks who are choosing the economic side of things over the public health side of things and that is because to put people’s lives at risk is far from leadership or far from putting “America first” as those who support the occupant in the White House like to claim he does.

Real leaders lead during a crisis and those who reopen when the virus that has been circulating throughout our land for months has not been contained, then we know that is NOT leadership and those who endanger the public by reopening anyway prove that they are not leaders who care for the well-being of our people.

Donald Trump and other Republicans have come out and shown their true colors throughout this pandemic by their repeated lies about the virus and their instance on reopening the country without getting the virus under control and history will never forget that nor will the American people come November.

The states that have reopened over the last few days and weeks have had increased positive cases and deaths and some of them have created a chaotic situation for their communities and the people who they are charged with protecting. These places reopened too soon and now are suffering the dire consequences from doing so as many are becoming infected and a fair amount are even dying from this virus.

The evidence is clear — it is too soon and too dangerous to reopen.

Yet, Trump and his Republican friends are not listening to the experts and are insistent on doing so, despite the evidence right in front of them that those that reopen before a vaccine or the curve being flattened are seeing further infections and potentially an outbreak beyond anything that they could ever contain.

The economy is important, but not more important than human life.

I find it ironic that a party that claims ownership to being “pro life” is choosing money over LIFE.

Yet, they are. They are choosing financial gain over protecting the health of people and that is something that should never happen. Health should be what comes first, not money, yet here we are with a president and GOP city and state leaders who are doing just that and it is something that is sick and shameful and something that must be called out and stopped, anyway that we can.

Trump even said today that with or without a vaccine that the country will open up again and people will go back to work. By saying that he proved to us all that he only cares about his precious economy and votes and not about what is best for the American people, and the Republican governors who are opening their states unsafely and unwisely are exactly the same — they choose money over people.

For example, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled just days ago to overrule the stay-at-home order put in place by the governor of that state and allow places to reopen. Places like bars and gyms and other establishments where large numbers of people will gather and thus put others at risk to become infected with this Coronavirus.

This ruling took us all back as it clearly puts the public in grave danger, but they are not alone.

Other states are taking similar actions. States like Texas, Georgia, and Florida and others are following suit. Georgia being the first who went against the recommendations of health experts and went ahead and reopened despite cases and deaths going up.

These states endanger lives. They choose the economy over health and their actions are reckless and dangerous. They follow the lead of Trump who is the one who should be leading the country and telling people to listen to the health experts, but instead is doing the opposite and allowing these governors of GOP states to choose economics over health and ignore the health experts, just like he does.

They think the crisis is over, it is far over.

Public health is most important. This is something we should all realize and when we reopen, it should be done in a safe and slow way, as to not further spread the virus and endanger American lives. This is what the smart leaders are doing, they are listening to what the experts say, rather than what the non-experts are saying.

COVID-19 is hard for everyone, reopening however is not smart when the virus is not under control.

Those who reopen fully now do not put public health first. Public health should always come first. When we do not put the health of our citizens first then our country cannot be strong and everything else will fall apart and fail as well and history has shown us this.

Republicans have always put money first and they likely always will, but what we are seeing now with Trump and states and cities reopening when the data from our medical professionals tell a different story, a story of how our nation would become much more at risk if we do not remain locked down and keep these shelter-in-place orders.

These people do not realize that by opening up before we have the virus under control then millions of people will be infected across America and then we really cannot open things up and will be closed for the indefinite future and that would really crash the economy.

They do not get this though, they do not get that by placing economics over health, lives will be lost and jobs and the productivity of workers will be lost as well as jobs and the overall economy would then crash and may not come back for some time, if at all. This is something that they just do not get, they just do not.

Public health must come first.

Remember how I was mentioning about the places that have already begun opening up just a few paragraphs ago?

Those places have put their citizens at risk by opening while cases and deaths are on the rise. Look at Wisconsin, they are opening up bars and restaurants and many with no specific guidelines to keep people safe and the pictures of people flocking to bars across the state just hours after the Supreme Court ruling show just how people are not taking it seriously and how the risk to public health has already begin.

Georgia is another example that I mentioned.

They were one of the first states to reopen and look at the numbers since they took that reckless action.

In Georgia since reopening, there have been 898 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 23 new deaths. That is in just a few weeks and the numbers are similar in other states that have prematurely reopened, these places have higher rate of infection and more deaths and it goes to show what happens when you reopen too soon.

Now, Trump wants to reopen schools and other parts of the country and we know what that means. It means that more people will get infected with this virus and more will die from it. There is no way around that, there is no way to avoid this from happening other than to keep places closed and then to open slowly and safely.

This is the only way to proceed.

For Trump and those on the right, money is what matters most, but for our medical experts and sane Americans, health is what matters most, public health should be protected above all else and if we do that then we can find safe ways to reopen the country and get the economy going again, but we can only do this in phases, doing it recklessly will get people sick and ultimately get people killed and we cannot afford to do that.

Put public health first. This is the responsible, smart, and humane thing to do and this is what we should do and how we should proceed, doing it with money being most important is not wise and not humane and that is the message we must send to Trump and company.