Run Its Course?
In the midst of a pandemic which has stricken over TWO MILLION PEOPLE and killed nearly ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY THOUSAND world wide, and which has killed nearly 46,000 Americans, many people appear bent on demonstrating their own ignorance and callousness.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has ignored Chicago’s social distancing rules in order to have her HAIR COLORED. Her gray “roots” were SHOWING, you see. When questioned, Lightfoot argued that as mayor of a major city, it was incumbent upon her to LOOK GOOD.
Then, there are the libertarians. As noted by ABC news, “Thousands of flag-waving, honking protesters drove past the Michigan Capitol on Wednesday (4/15/20) to show their displeasure with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s orders to keep people at home.” Protestors in Phoenix, Arizona, and other cities, have held similar demonstrations demanding the immediate “reopening” of the economy. While we should all sympathize with the economic hardship many Americans are experiencing, we must never forget that there are LIVES at stake.
Looking further into the libertarian concerns, it should be admitted that the Constitutional basis for the social distancing requirement, the closing of non essential businesses and the mandatory quarantine of individuals exposed to the disease, is not simple. It is clear that both the Constitution and American case law give the government the authority to restrict the movements of patients sick with communicable diseases. What’s LESS clear, however, is if the government has the right to restrict the movement of HEALTHY people. The bugaboo in the case of COVID-19 is, of course, that because COVID-19 often produces long periods of asymptomatic infectivity, it’s just not possible to know precisely who is dangerous and who isn’t. Given this rather unique state of affairs, and given the gravity of the threat, I would argue that the government’s right to restrict the activities of sick individuals must be extended to include those who are POTENTIALLY dangerous as well.
Some commentators have claimed that media coverage of the pandemic is, simply, “hype”. These complainers appear to be blissfully UNAWARE of the tremendous suffering, pain and even terror that the thousands of patients afflicted with the disease are experiencing. These callous louts are also unaware of the tremendous courage and self sacrifice of the frontline responders, medical and non medical, that have stepped up to treat the sick and to keep our country running as robustly as is possible under these conditions.
On the other side of the coin, there are cases in which authorities have acted like despots and have gone beyond what could be called “reasonable” measures. In Boise, Idaho, for an example, a mother was arrested for letting her children play in a park that was supposed to have been closed. The police might have reprimanded her, given her a warning, or even given her a summons, but instead, they chose to arrest her and take her away in handcuffs! As another example, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, during a news conference, threatened that any church or synagogue that allowed congregations to assemble would be, verbatim, “closed permanently.”… PERMANENTLY, Mr. Mayor?… PERMANENTLY???… You must be mistaking New York City for Pyongyang.
Then, there is the demon lurking around every corner of the pandemic: POLITICIZATION. Nancy Pelosi’s first impulse, when confronted with the enormity of the looming pandemic, was… to form ANOTHER COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE PRESIDENT TRUMP! The Democrat’s next impulse was a plan to use the pandemic to RESTRUCTURE the United States of America along more socialistic lines. As Congressman Jim Clyburn explained, the pandemic was, verbatim, “A TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY to RESTRUCTURE things to fit our vision.”!!!! And the Democrats apparently feel that the pandemic is a wonderful tool with which to criticize our president. We hear, again and again, of Mr. Trump’s “mismanagement” of the pandemic. These critics, however, would be at loss to explain the fact that both the total number of American cases and deaths have been MUCH MUCH less than predicted by ALL the experts. In late March, Dr. Anthony Fauci and the specialists at the Centers for Disease (CDC) estimated that even with full closure of our nation, the expected number of deaths would be 100,000 to 200,000 (source: Matthew Yglesias, March 29, 2020, www.vox.com) and the total number of cases would be “millions.” With index rates beginning to come down, actual numbers are 46 K deaths and 750K cases (source: www.statista.com). So much for “mismanagement.”
Then there are the “deniers”, mostly from the business realm who liken COVID-19 to influenza and advocate dropping restrictions that close business and letting the pandemic “run its course.” These individuals cite statistics that show that influenza may be as much of a killer as COVID-19. They point to the winter of 2017->2018 in which influenza killed EIGHTY THOUSAND AMERICANS (source: Associated Press, September 26, 2018) which is nearly twice what COVID-19 has caused thus far. They often say, “influenza is at least as deadly as COVID-19, but we don’t shut down our country every flu season, so why must we shut down the country for COVID-19?” While this argument is partially correct on the face of it, there are several important ways in which the two plagues are different. Firstly, there are effective and readily available VACCINES against influenza, so anyone concerned or frightened can get immunized. Second, COVID-19 appears to be more COMMUNICABLE than influenza. It has been acknowledged that COVID-19 can be spread by aerosols where influenza usually requires contact or droplet spread. Third, COVID-19 has the unique property that it is most COMMUNICABLE early on, when most patients are asymptomatic, going about their business and, unwittingly, spreading the virus. Fourth, medical science has had MUCH less experience with COVID-19 than it has had with influenza. Optimal medicines and optimal treatment strategies have simply not been worked out for COVID-19 whereas they have been for influenza. Fifth, COVID-19’s has the unique ability, more so than many other communicable diseases to DEHUMANIZE us. Because it is SO contagious, and because vaccines and proven treatments are not yet available for it, stricken patients are often cut off from the support and love of friends and families – left to die alone, a pitiful and “unclean” pariah. The sixth difference may be the worst: the UNKNOWN. Because this disease is so new, no one, really, knows for sure what horrors lie in store for the victims and for society. We don’t know if survivors will have permanent residual disease or impairment. We don’t know if they will carry the sequelae of this awful disease for all their days. And, we don’t know what scars it will leave on our economy and the social fabric of our nation.
And, on top of all this, the psychological scarring that results from the pandemic can only be guessed at. The terror and sense of doom that victims must feel as they are brought into the hospital, languish among the sick and the dying, transferred into the ICU, intubated, given last rights, put on ventilators and abandoned, by decree, by all the friends and loved ones they so desperately need. And let’s not forget the anguish, and remorse, that doctors and the entire medical team must feel when patient after patient, despite all their efforts, deteriorates and dies, all of that LIFE slipping through their fingers, as they stand by helpless.
The following link is the story of the family of a COVID-19 patient:
I dare anyone who’s seen this to tell me how we should be blazé about this disease and let it “run its course.”