Trump said yesterday he wants the churches “packed”, social distancing ended and the economy up and running by Easter Sunday. All this despite cautionary warnings from medical experts as to the unknown length of this contagion. People can carry the virus, feeling fine, for days, maybe weeks. We don’t know even if they are still contagious after recovering. Is his enthusiasm for opening up the country to business as usual related to probability , based on any statistics or is it wishful thinking because he desperately wants business to flood into his hotels and resorts? What percentage of his finances are involved in the cruise ship lines he is so concerned about which are floating hot spots of disease?
The Chinese have been extremely successful in combating and containing the virus, through lockdowns and isolation. However, two and a half months after it began in Wu Han, even though it seems to have been conquered, that government is still requiring the use of masks and distancing for another couple of weeks, until April 8th. In Hong Kong, where they also seemed to be in control of it and relaxed, there is now an upsurge in cases. No one knows for sure that the decline in cases will not reverse itself, especially if the sanctions on group gatherings, etc. are lifted.
Iceland has found that ½ of those tested positive are asymptomatic. We must have the tests to contain and predict the course of this disease. There now exists a large pool of contagious people walking around with no symptoms or with very mild symptoms who are not identified. Many of these have fled NYC for Florida, North Carolina, etc. creating new coastal “hot spots”.
Those revelers at the Mardi Gras in New Orleans have created another hot spot in the State of Louisiana, as well as spreading it back home when they returned. The unconcerned beach bunnies that crowded Florida’s beaches have spread it to their point of origin when they returned from celebrating. Would they have done this if Trump had taken proper warning steps towards social distancing instead of denying the crisis with such dismissals of hoax, just a cold and implying that people can go to work who have it?
Having to be sick to be tested makes no sense, according to medical experts. We need to find the carriers before they exhibit symptoms. Yet, Trump is still passing the buck to local and state governments to institute containment procedures on CV. Because of his inactions, his failure to launch emergency measures, we do not have the coordination and nationwide efforts needed to fight this pestilence. We need safeguards in place: testing kits first and foremost, along with tactics such as self isolation and lockdowns to slow the spread of the virus and give us time to produce medical supplies.
Today, after 5 days of negotiations, Congress has come up with a 2 Trillion dollar corona economic aid stimulus package. Trump can save all the corporate business he wants, but without workers to staff them they cannot function and will fold. Yet he still doesn’t institute the Defense Production Act, which should have been organized and put into effect weeks ago. We need to centralize, coordinate and re-tool our factories to make virus testing kits, masks, ventilators, etc. Instead, Trump is content to let each and every state try to figure out a way to tend its own wounds. His “Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!” philosophy will not stop the coronavirus. He is a failure to himself, his own loved ones, and to the American people.