Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-Cov-2.Whether we like it or not we are in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic which is detrimental to us physically, financially, and, of course, socially.
The most important thing one needs to understand about this infection is that humans have never encountered this strain of the virus and it is not like flu at all.
There is no cure, no immunity, and not enough tests available to diagnose the infections. In fact our actual numbers of infected cases are likely higher but we don’t know because we can’t test everyone right now. Think about it, we have people in our community who are infected, asymptomatic and who can’t get tested because of low testing kits. These are the people who are likely to spread the virus to you when establishments open up.
The only way to beat it is to avoid getting infected. Prevention is the key. This disease appears to be winning on multiple levels. It has infected us, killed us, destroyed us financially, and now is pitting us against each other.
This pandemic is dynamic and continues to change rapidly even now as it has entered into several months of its existence. Dynamism is good because it means that the cases and fatalities could go down sharply if we made all the right moves. However dynamism also means that they could go up sharply.
As of 9.30 pm today on 5/4/20 there are 3.5 million cases and 1,208,101 fatalities in the world. The various agencies, universities who have been using specific models to project the cases and fatalities related to the pandemic continue to revise their numbers. For example University of Washington, Institute for Health, Modeling and Evaluation has projected that the Coronavirus pandemic is likely to claim nearly 135000 lives in USA by August 2020 because some of our states in US are starting to ease social restrictions. We are starting to open up. But at what cost? Even one extra person who dies because we opened too soon is one too many. Would you want to be the person who was instrumental in infecting your friends, family and colleagues just because you could not stay at home for a little bit longer.
Ohio did exceptionally well when at barely three confirmed cases Governor DeWine and our director of public health Dr. Amy Acton started closing down the state in March 2020. That has definitely saved quite a few lives.
However, we are opening back up slowly and I don’t believe we are ready to open. I am sure that Dr. Amy Acton also does not believe that we are ready. The cases continue to increase and fatalities continue to increase everyday. Just a couple of weeks ago Ohio had 1308 positive cases on April 19th. April 26 we went to as low as about 300 cases and then April 30th back up to around 700. To me this is a roller coaster virus ride. We are not even at the plateau yet. All we did was slow down the virus infection but not control it. Actually we can’t control it because we are not there yet. I have admired Ohio state public health director Dr. Amy Acton since she took the lead to close down Ohio early on in the pandemic. However this weekend when I saw that people are protesting against her and that legistlative tactics are bei g tried to reduce her power, I was appalled at this sheer irresponsible behavior.
For those of us who have not been infected, we feel that enough is enough and we are ready to come out of isolation. We are ready to face the world. We are ready to even take political and social stands against those people who are requiring us to cower ourselves some more. These public health officials want us to stay put and frankly none of us are liking that. Yes even I don’t like it but it does not mean that I won’t do it and I don’t understand it. Now more than ever we need to understand it, we need to be united as humans.
Remember the basic problem? The problem is of virus against us humans. Humans are not divided into various categories such as a political leader, student, public health person, businessmen,and physicians. We are not each other’s enemy. We have to be united at this time in our lives.
We will be able to open when we have fair tools to fight against the virus. Our equation should be humans against the virus! That will happen when the vaccine is out, when we have a solid effective treatment and when we understand the virus. Medical profession, and laboratories need time. Give it to them.
Until then I implore you for the sake of humanity, our existence, and our sanity maintain safe distance, wash those hands, wear those masks, don’t be angry and upset with other humans and stay at home for as long as it will take. We will collectively suffer for our hastiness if we are not careful. We are all in it together, and we will all benefit from our patience. Stay home if you can, just for a little bit more.
For questions you can reach me at outbreakready@gmail.com
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