Are The COVID-19 Shutdowns & Restrictions Too Much For A Tired Public?

Percentages Of Serious Cases Are Small, But Did It Save A Catastrophic Situation?

 

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Lifestyle Blogger

I’m torn.

All around the country, as well as more cautiously around the world, cities, activities, bars, restaurants and even movie theaters are re-opening after the COVID-19 shutdown.

And as I survey the landscape, I’m wondering if all the closures were worth it in the first place. We still don’t have concerts, festivals, public events, many live sports and may not even have a football season.

Yes, there are lot of people who have suffered tremendously from coronavirus, leading to hospitalization – in some cases lasting for several weeks – and, sadly, loss of life for many. That’s never easy to accept.

But as I look and analyze the numbers, in certain areas anyway, it almost seems as if we tossing aside the needs of the many for the needs of the (relatively) few.

Here in San Diego, for example, the infection rate is 2.5% of the population. At its height it was just 4.5% (it has risen on the day this was posted to 7% but it will have to be seen if this is a trend or a temporary rise).  Of the approximately 350 deaths, all but two have been people 60+ with pre-existing heath conditions. So on the surface, that means that San Diego shut the beaches, bars, restaurants, canceled ComicCon (the city’s signature event), the 4th of July fireworks, concerts on the bay and everything else you can imagine for two people.

San Diego County has a population in excess 3.3 million. Heck, the newspaper and news stations don’t even cover COVID-19 every day; the protests not only took it off the front page but off the news entirely for many days.

Even in Florida, which has been blasted on social media and by the mainstream media going back to one video at the end of Spring Break, the infection rate is just 7.7%. And that’s with a recent spike in positive tests.

In the U.S., as if this writing, there have been 2.2 million cases with 120,000 deaths. That is an infection rate of .67 percent. The country’s population, according to a Google search, is 328.2 million.

And, of course, it’s not the infection rate that is important– to me, anyway, and should be to the decision makers and the public – be the severity of the infections. After all, not everybody who gets coronavirus winds up on a ventilator in a hospital emergency room. The media gets all excited about the increasing number of positive cases, too, but that’s only natural since there is more testing now. And those massive protests put people in close contact with others and certainly not everyone at them was wearing a mask.

So we all have to wear masks, keep six feet away from people in bars and restaurants and not go to concerts, festivals and sporting events because of a small percentage of the population has a real problem fighting off the novel coronavirus.

But here’s the reason I’m really torn on this issue.

It’s real and it’s out there. Anyone who thinks otherwise has their head stuck in the sand or is simply ignoring it. People are getting the virus, some are getting sick from it and some are dying as a result of it.

What if none of the restrictions existed and were not put into place? Would we be dealing with a catastrophic situation with no solution to a major worldwide problem?

More closer to home, would I have it?

Would my friends have it?

And if so, would one of us be gasping for air in a hospital or even die? The mere thought of this gives me the shivers.

The answer is, I don’t really have an answer. On the one hand it seems silly to shut down the entire planet for a virus. On the other hand, maybe those measures have saved a million lives. Perhaps mine and yours.

Certainly the public is tired of all the COVID-19 talk and restrictions. All you have to do is see big numbers of people going to the beaches, the parks, restaurants and bars and, in some cities, thumbing their noses at their governors’ words, to know this is the case.

The only real solution, for the moment anyway, is to obey all the mask and social distancing rules while we’re out in public. And hope for the best.

And by all means, wash those hands a LOT!