COVID precautions: We’re on our own?

Bill Knight column for 11-19, 20 or 21, 2020

 I’m as sick of writing about the doom-and-gloom pandemic as you are sick of reading about it.

But I’m not SICK sick.

As Monday’s news noted Illinois Congresswoman Cheri Bustos testing positive for COVID-19, it had been months of dithering, dishonesty and dissembling from Washington, and I realized it’s apparently necessary to remind everyone: Neither the virus nor public safety is political; it’s makes no sense to say “I won’t live in fear” as the country passes the 11-million-cases mark Sunday, when the death total approached 250,000 people; and the Midwest reported the most cases per capita.

Folks frustrated with a virus beyond their control can put “Pritzker Sucks!” signs in their yards, but COVID-19 is still the problem, not any official. And eliminating the problem requires vigilance and cooperation, not the defiant, denying attitude that may as well wear a “MASA” baseball cap: “Make America Sick Again!”

(I also realize that most doubters and deniers will scoff; maybe some on the fence will change.)

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently said that the pandemic has resulted in almost 300,000 “excess deaths” compared to typical years. The 250,000 COVID deaths “might underestimate the total impact of the pandemic on mortality,” the CDC reported, and some experts warn that fatalities could double by March.

Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN, “We are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe and approaching potentially 400,000 Americans who could perish by the early part of next year.”

Recognizing the threat, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker recommended restrictions to protect public health AND RESTORE THE ECONOMY. It wasn’t a lark or a bid for power.

“The thing that's maddening is country after country and state after state have shown us how we can contain the virus,” said Dr. Jonathan Quick of the Duke Global Health Institute. “It’s not like we don’t know what works. We do.”

Despite many of us now also knowing a victim of the virus, there’s the ordinary human impatience at inconveniences, rules or advice. Whether toddlers or adults, some resist naps, shake their fists at sharing, or scream at rain or gravity or who knows what all?

Facing mitigations, responses from Illinois’ local officials run the gamut from fearlessness to foolishness. Peoria’s mayor and sheriff pledged to enforce the measures; Galesburg and East Peoria leaders won’t, East Peoria Mayor John Kahl said, “I’m a big believer that people can make personal decisions and choices on their own.”

Huh. What about enforcing the drinking age or smoking in public places? Food labeling or preparation standards? Stop signs and speed limits? How about “No shirt, no shoes, no service”?

You want to drive home from the bar too drunk to see pedestrians (without a seat belt, of course)? “THAT’S FREEDOM, BABY!”

Understandably, some worry about their businesses. (“Fear,” even.) And there may be legitimate confusion about guidelines, or conflicting scientific findings. Brown University economist Emily Oster says her research shows schools aren’t super-spreaders, but Europe closing schools while opening restaurants and taverns seems to work there. Data from cellphones show restaurants, gyms, hotels and houses of worship without occupancy limits contribute to spread, but in Illinois, contact tracing shows factories and manufacturers often led all sites with multiple infections.

Regardless of the din, it’s abundantly clear that masks protect wearers as well as others; a University of Washington paper said “expanding mask use is one of the easy wins” and 130,000 lives could be spared with universal adoption; and courts have supported Pritzker’s authority to act on behalf of public health.

Lastly, there have been families of COVID casualties who’ve blamed President Trump, such as the next-of-kin of David W. Nagy of Texas, and Mark Urquiza of Arizona. Even one-time deniers of the pandemic’s seriousness have fallen ill or died: Tony Green (Texas), Ruben Mata (California), John W. McDaniel (Ohio), Gov. Mike Parson (Missouri), Karen Kolb Sehlke (Texas), Tony Tenpenny (Tennessee),

Tim Walters (Maryland), and, undoubtedly, many more.

In a crisis where people face an insidious, invisible foe, an airborne transmission that can kill, we can’t expect to be unaffected. If we’re “on our own,” we’re vulnerable to others who may not yet know they’re infected and to those who’ve endangered communities with their own personal sense of freedom.

Have we just given up? Are we doomed?