The Pandemic : Part Two

COVID-19 has devastated the globe, and especially the United States of America with 7.9 million cases worldwide and 430,000 deaths and here at home over 2 million cases and more than 115,000 fatalities while causing tens of millions of people to lose their jobs and suffer financially.

This has been a hard time for so many and it appears that that hard time will continue — for some time.

When cities and states began talking about plans to phase in reopening their communities there was a lot of worry that it was too soon and that people would not follow the rules and look where we are at almost three months after the first lockdowns were put into place in the U.S. and our lives were stopped.

We knew that this would happen if places reopened too soon and people did not follow the rules and here we are, facing the real possibility of going back on lockdown just as many places have reopened and began to get their cities and states and economies rolling again.

The cases are beginning to rise again and some places just reopened.

Not to be political, but the current administration led by Donald Trump has pushed for governors and other leaders to reopen their communities since they shut down back in March. Trump has been a very vocal supporter of reopening and in some ways, demanded that states reopen, even as cases have been on the rise.

As of today, here are the facts on where we stand with the pandemic.

• Georgia reopened gyms, barbers, and other businesses on April 24th and since then have seen a 13% increase in cases.
• As of yesterday, Florida has seen 2,500 new infections on a daily basis over the last several days.
• In Texas, 2,350 new cases reported over the last week and a 66% rise in hospitalizations since Memorial Day.
• In Arizona, they had a single day high in cases rising with 2,392 on Tuesday alone and hospitalizations and deaths have the highest increase in the country.
• In Wisconsin, cases are steady and they have had to add 100 new ICU beds in their hospitals to keep up with the rise.
• Ohio even at 528 new cases and 16 new deaths in the last week has seen a sharp increase in their case load of new COVID-19 infections.

What do all of these places have in common?

They all reopened before the curve was flattened and the virus was contained at a safer level.

Every state has had some increase in cases but the increase has been slow enough in places like California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and other states and that is because these states reopened in phases and did not jump the gun and do it too soon. The governors of the states that reopened slowly knew that doing it too soon would be catastrophic, like the governors of the bulleted states above are learning.

We knew that things would have to reopen at some point, but the places that did it the wrong way have learned a hard lesson in the process and continue to learn that lesson as they reopen more places and their citizens do not obey the rules.

You see, if people would have followed the rules and not crowd beaches in the state of Florida, or fill the bars of Arizona, or go to pool parties in Georgia, or attend events in Texas and fill the walls with no regard for masks or social distancing, then we would not be in what is now the second wave of the virus and would be in better shape.

The thing is, people are inpatient and want things to just be back to normal now, instead of waiting for the virus to go away and a vaccine to be ready for the general public.

It is because of these states that had an opportunity to get the virus under control that we will have a second and more powerful wave of this virus and perhaps have more deaths and more cases than we had the first time around with COVID-19.

The pandemic, part two.

This is where we are. We are here because people do not follow the rules that have been put in place to protect us from each other, they fail to listen to what the experts have been telling us all along. They ignore the most basic of the suggestions that are put in place to protect people and think that they know what is best, when they do not.

These suggestions are put in place to flatten the curve yet the people who could be part of the solution and do just that choose to do what is best for them, or what they think is best for them. They want to go to the club or the mall or the beach and so on and do so in a very irresponsible way and in a way that puts themselves and everyone else at risk.

This is why we have a part two on our hands.

Social distancing, wearing a mask, and washing your hands are the key to defeating this virus and yet people everywhere refuse to take these very simple actions that could save their lives and the lives of the rest of us in our society.

You see it everywhere. People in grocery stores not wearing a mask and not practicing social distancing. You see people crowding into places where they should not be or where they could be if they took the above measures and took things seriously.

It is because we have fools roaming about us in our communities that we have COVID-19 — The sequel.

I hate it make this political but sadly, it is.

Besides our citizens who do not take it seriously and don’t follow the rules that the medical experts put into place, there are some other elements at play that have given us our second wave and perhaps a worst wave than the first one that we had and those elements are political ones and corporate ones in our country.

We have Trump who pushes states to reopen, even as cases are rising and more are dying and then we have those states and their governors who in fact reopened before it was time. It is these political elements that contributed to this second wave of the Coronavirus and who chose money and the economy over human life.

Trump does not care and neither do these Republican governors.

They chose dollars over people and continue to do so even as the evidence shows that more are getting sick and dying from COVID-19 and that it is time to re-evaluate things and close down again, yet they will not do so. They much rather let the second wave happen than do the right thing and protect their citizens and their communities and that is just wrong.

Then there is the corrupt side to it.

Businesses are remaining open despite their staff becoming positive with the virus and sickness spreading throughout their businesses and people being put at risk for profit. This is how all of the big box retailers operate, they remain open and even hide the fact that they have employees who have the virus working.

These companies who not care that people are sick and working and that customers and other employees are being exposed to the illness throughout their stores and plants. They rather people be sick and remain open that close down and do the right and healthy thing, they choose profit over human life and that is no different than the politicians who do the same when they reopen too soon.

This is not over yet.

The second wave has arrived and COVID-19, part two is with us.

The virus is back and stronger than ever and it is not going away anytime soon, even with a vaccine, which itself is a long way off.

We can still get this under control and get the pandemic right, get it right despite the fact that the president, GOP governors, business owners, and foolish people who do not follow the rules dropped the ball and failed to get it under control when they had the opportunity to do so.

COVID-19 is not going anywhere.

This is part two, even though if you go around in our cities and towns it is obvious that people do not believe that it is.

They act like it is over, when it is far from that. People are going out and acting like the virus never existed to begin with and for sure are not acting as if it is still with us now. The virus that they think is not a big deal is very much a big deal, whether the COVIDIOTS want to believe it or not.

You know what a “COVIDIOT” is don’t you?

“Someone who ignores the warnings regarding health or safety.
A person who hoards goods, denying them from their neighbors.” says the Urban Dictionary.

These people do not take this virus seriously and are very much to blame in a big way for part two of this virus.

Part two is here and it is real. It will not go away just because we want it to go away. The way that it goes away (now or ever) is if we band together as people and follow the public health rules put in place by our local governments and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and others and stop being selfish and foolish and do what is right — for ourselves, our neighbors, our families, and for our country.

The sequel is here — Ready or not!