Deadly Priorities

Blog#32- 6/19/20

DEADLY PRIORITIES
By
Richard Davis

Why do so many Americans value the lives of others so little? Why are they willing to allow the spread of disease, disability and death with such arrogant defiance so they can eat at restaurants, have their hair cut and mingle in public crowds at beaches and rallies?
Some argue that if more businesses do not re-open then the economy will suffer too much. We have a society that worships commerce and the power of the dollar and that is one of the reasons so many Americans are deciding to stop taking measures to spread the COVID virus.

We must re-tool our economy in the face of the pandemic while also making the decision to value life above all else. Our collective ethos is heading in the wrong direction and a lot of people are going to suffer and die.

A great deal of the blame for the march to the freedom to die falls on the President and his unwillingness to accept the fact that COVID 19 is bigger and more powerful than he is. To him this disease is just one more foe to be defeated and he thinks his bluster and bullying will kill off the virus. He has no regard for the lives of others and he has no understanding of the power of unrestrained disease.

His Oklahoma rally will cause the death of many people. The virus will be spread and the community of Tulsa will see a spike in new cases and hospitalizations just because an arrogant, ignorant politician wants a lot of people to show how much they love him. In exchange for love he will give them death.

The American death toll from COVID is now over 120,000; the highest in the world. We have done the poorest job of containing the virus of any nation on earth. As the numbers rise, officials have decided to open up more commerce despite the fact that there is no vaccine and there is no treatment for the disease other than supportive care.

Their actions rely on people in communities to wear masks and socially distance; little more than wishful thinking. There will always be people who ignore sound advice because they don’t want anyone to intrude on their life or tell them what to do. The President is one the best examples of this and this kind of behavior gives license to other Americans to continue to make sure the number of deaths continue to rise.

Common sense and a lot of reading of research articles and reports in medical journals leads me to believe that the only sensible thing for Americans to do is to ignore the opening of the country and to act as if we are still in the early days of the pandemic. We must act as if it is still early April 2020.

I will not go to a restaurant and I will not go into any store without a mask. I limit my commerce and I limit my contact with other people because those are the only sensible things to do during a pandemic.

The opening of the economy is a move that will result in a new spike in COVID cases and it is possible that by the end of the summer that the resurgence could be high enough to force state governments to shut things down again. It seems inevitable that things will get worse.

We can figure out ways to bolster the economy, find more creative ways to overcome obstacles to commerce and redirect resources, but we can never dig up the graves of COVID victims and bring them back to life.

What has happened to our priorities and our respect for life?