Well, we are at 18 months and counting of “2 weeks to flatten the curve”. According to the CDC, there have been 39,831,318 cases in the United States, with 644,848 of those cases resulting in death. That means that roughly 1.6% of the people diagnosed with Covid-19 have died from it.
There are 332,712,704 people living in the United States. That means that a little over 8.35% of our population has been diagnosed with Covid-19, and .19% of that population has died from the disease.
That is, of course, a broad average across the entire population. As we have seen, the elderly and infirm have been gravely impacted by this disease. The risk of death from this disease goes up dramatically if the infected person is older, immunocompromised, or has other comorbidities such as lung problems.
In order to stem that tide, first the Trump, and then the Biden, administrations, with the assistance of the various states, instituted broad economic and social measures. These included closing businesses and schools, restricting gatherings and travel, and the enforcement of social-distancing and mask usage.
Of course, nothing happens without consequences. If you shutter a huge chunk of the economy to prevent spread of a virus, the people who depend on the paychecks that economy produces need help. And so, we have seen an unprecedented level of emergency spending.
We have seen schools adapt, some better than others, to a reality in which students cannot congregate. My son’s school did a good job of at least getting the kids exposed to their coursework and enforcing homework, but it’s a small school that was already known for academic rigor. We are only now starting to see the impact of a year or more of remote learning has had on students from larger school districts that were already in trouble before this all started.
The impacts from all of these actions and reactions will ripple through our economy and society for years. In the short term, we are limping along. Things aren’t as bad now as they were a year ago, but they aren’t even close to how good they were two years ago.
We have also seen a litany of public shaming of those who don’t toe the line when it comes to social restrictions, accompanied with private hypocracy on the part of our social, economic, and political betters.
Governors who lock down their states have been caught enjoying a night out with their friends, family, and donors. Politicians who restrict travel within their own state have taken it upon themselves to travel to their vacation homes.
When protesters gather for one cause, they are berated. When protesters gather for another cause, their complaints are deemed worthy, and their lack of social distancing and masks are shrugged off.
When a group of people gather in a remote town to enjoy their hobby, they are labelled as super-spreaders in the national media. When a former president holds a birthday bash in a small community and invites a large number of people from around the world, nary a disapproving eyebrow is raised.
Meanwhile, American families are suffering because the economy is sluggish, at best, and the value of what money they can make is decreasing every day.
Covid-19, in all of its variants, is a serious disease. To some portions of our population, it is a deadly disease. Steps to prevent its spread, done in a prudent manner, are necessary. I am vaccinated against the disease, and even if it’s only as effective as the flu shot I get every year, it’s better than nothing. Masks are not a panacea, but if you feel that you should wear one, please do.
All Americans should take the steps they can to prevent the spread of this virus.
But the government telling us that we have to get our shots and we have to wear a mask and we can’t gather together and we have to follow instructions because they know better and you’ll have to get more shots and you have to do this because they said so is not going to fly with a large number of our fellow citizens.
We have spent the last three generations telling ourselves that the government has no business telling us how we should live or what we should do with our bodies. Is it any surprise that after 50 years of telling The Man he can’t tell us what to do, ex cathedra dictates from the CDC and Washington are being ignored, if not actively defied?
If those in power want us to do as they wish, they need to not only switch from coersion to persuasion, they also need to follow their own rules. Either their rules are law, or they are guidelines. Either they mean something, or they mean nothing. If you want the country to forgo large public gatherings, quit supporting them when they benefit your side. If you want people to stop holding large family gatherings, cancel your own first. If wearing a mask is important, you better be the most anally retentive mask wearer on earth before you waggle a finger at us during one of your daily news conferences.
In other words, the first people to follow these rules need to be the people promulgating and enforcing them. Either they mean something, or they mean nothing, and the first indicator that they mean nothing is when we see a governor, senator, or anyone else telling us what to do, who doesn’t follow their own rules.
