by Kara Machowski
To open the country or to keep the country closed? It's as if we're being broken up with by a girl/boyfriend only to have him call us up and say he wants to get back together, just for him to break our heart a week later. But this isn't a teen drama, this is a serious debate right now, and by serious, I mean it's understandingly very important. On one hand, there is the obvious loss of jobs, food lines that span for miles only to be told to go home because they ran out of handouts, and those who are being told to leave their apartments because they can't pay the rent. Then we have doctors and nurses on the front lines who are begging for Americans to stay home because of how unpredictable and unforgiving the virus is. Now we have both political parties, once again, up in arms. Can't we all get along for over a week?
When coronavirus first began in Wuhan with one patient in late December, it had my attention. When that patient died, I knew something was up, and when the physician who was taking care of the patient died in mid-January from the virus I knew it was severe. More cases sprung up, most of whom originated from a cluster in Wuhan's wet market, few physicians and when the deaths began to occur daily I was hooked. On February 8th the number of deaths in one day was 81, a few weeks after China announced the virus and locked down the city of Wuhan. I began to track the number of deaths every other day from the virus. I calculated the percentage in the rise of deaths, found the mean percentage, 1.2%, which was used with both no lockdown and the beginning of a stringent lockdown, resulting in a rise of 1.2% of deaths EOD with little to mid-lockdown sanctions.
FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
I can’t tell you what the best process is to deal with joblessness, but that’s what our government is supposed to help us with and unfortunately so many unemployed are having issues even filing for unemployment and few people who simply don’t qualify. This is a major issue, but again, where is the government on this? We were issued a $1,200 stimulus check, but not only did it take over a month to finalize and send out, but many also won’t see their returns for another two months or so, let alone will it in any way cover anybody’s total expenses. Other countries such as Canada are able to supply their citizens with a quick $2,000 a month for a total of four months, equaling $8,000, an amount that Americans will never see. In summary, we’re still experimenting with drugs to help treat coronavirus, let alone a vaccine. Only Tuesday a study was released that stated that patients with Covid-19 that were given hydroxychloroquine had a 2x higher chance of dying (26.8%) than those who weren’t given the drug (11.4%). The V.A. released that study while the director of the CDC warned Tuesday that the second wave in fall could be much more deadly than the current one, as it would occur coincidentally with flu season. We still have a long way to go, but simply telling the country to lockdown, only to tell them a month later that we need to open up is not only confusing, but it’s also frankly irresponsible and lazy. We need help, we need guidance, we can’t be thrust in opposite directions in the midst of stressing about bills, catching the virus, loved ones who have it, or those who are dealing with the loss of a loved one with the horrible death process that includes finances along with depression, regret, and anger. The truth is that until we conceive a good plan or a vaccine, we are in no way ready to open. China has seen the second wave of cases and is now implementing another lockdown procedure.
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