Flying Free

Flying Free

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Smash the Curve


I know first hand, as do most of Americans, what it's like to stay at home and not have contact with people for weeks on end.  The idea of opening up the country is enticing, but is it practical?  Is the cost of human lives equally important as increasing our economic stability?  In 1918, during the pandemic of the Spanish flu, the country opened up earlier than they should have and found it produced a 2nd wave of the flu which killed more people than the first wave.  The pandemic peaked in the US during the second wave, in the fall of 1918.  The highly fatal second wave was responsible for most of the US deaths attributed to the pandemic.  "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (George Sandayana).   Have we forgotten, or have we chosen to forget, what happened 100 years ago?

I understand that this "close down" has been hard for the small businessman, and I feel bad about that, but if I had to choose to lose my business or to lose my child, the choice would be easy.  I watch the protestors on the news holding signs that say, "My body, my choice," but it's not only your body.  Your "choice" puts the rest of us at risk.  I watch the protestors standing shoulder to shoulder, without masks and realize that they are risking our lives just by protesting together.  I have not seen protestors using social distancing.

In my opinion, the protestors are giving the first line responders a slap in the face.  While first responder are on the front line helping the sick and dying,  protestors want to open the country to more illness and dying.  Currently we have flattened the curve showing that social distancing and staying at home has worked.  Before we open up our country we have to "smash the curve" (Stephen Bannon).  We have to see a decrease in the number of Covid-19 patients, not just a plateau.  We need to make sure that a second wave of this disease doesn't rear its ugly head.


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