One American's View of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Like many Americans my head is spinning lately over the COVID-19 Pandemic. I remember when I first read about it back in January, they said it was a SARS like coronavirus from China and was spreading to other countries. So I knew it'd be a global issue, but like most of us could not have begun to predict how it would impact our country.

I sit here in shock that in my city of Las Vegas they are shutting down several casinos for two weeks. As far as I know that has never happened, at least at this level. Casinos do not close. The employee layoffs are already starting. Also, nationwide professional sports are suspended, cruise lines have stopped cruising, schools are closed and the list goes on. We are being advised to stay home and self isolate and keep our distance from others when we do have to go out. Now many are talking about the airlines making a drastic change soon as well. This was all unimaginable a few weeks ago.

I've been practicing social distancing this past week but not really before that. All I had been doing was buying a little more groceries and supplies than I usually do. But things really hit on Friday when the President declared a National Emergency and the general public took notice; mostly by flooding grocery stores!

These things are happening all around us but most of us don't know anyone who is actually sick with COVID-19 yet. We are being warned by the Center for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization that things will soon get really bad for us. We don't hear much from China, but have been told that their numbers are finally slowing down after quarantining hundreds of millions of people for several weeks. The latest report shows 80,880 cases today whereas it was 79, 828 two weeks ago, which is only 1,052 new cases. 

Dr. Li Wen Liang 

Dr. Li Wen Liang, A Chinese doctor who first tried to warn his colleagues and his country about this newest coronavirus back in December was shamed and silenced by the Chinese government for "making false comments on the internet." He was diagnosed with COVID-19 February 1st and died six days later, survived by his son and pregnant wife. Now China reveres him. Too little too late.

I've been following the stories of this virus and checking Worldometers.info site that gives updates on the COVID-19 numbers. I took a screenshot on March 1 when Italy had 1,128 cases and 29 deaths. They started their lockdowns on March 9. Now on March 16 they have 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths. The United States reported 70 cases on March 1 and only 1 death. Today it says 4,727 cases and 93 deaths. The U.S. is short on testing kits and when they are more widely available later this week we'll get a clearer picture of how many cases we actually have. The numbers don't seem very high yet but we are being told by experts such as Dr. Fauci, the Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that they will grow exponentially and when they do we will be overwhelmed. He says that although what we are now doing seems alarming it will later on seem like it was not enough. Those are scary words. This message is also being broadcast to us by as countries such as Italy, South Korea, Spain, and Ireland.

Most of us don't know what to think. Because the news is coming from not just inside our country, but outside of it as well, I tend to trust it. But many question the information because it's so extreme and there are few to no signs of illness yet to the average person or anyone they know. They do have every right as Americans to state their opinions and ask questions. For me, since the information is coming from various countries and international health organizations that don't give a squat about America's politics, I do believe what they are telling the rest of the world. Also, if our media is trying to invoke fear to destroy the economy to bring down our current President then why would they go so far as to ruin their own stock values, businesses and cause job losses of their own friends and family, which consist of people from all parties?  Seems self sabotaging. In a few weeks I suppose we will all know much more about what should have been done, or not done during this time. 

One thing we can ALL agree on as Americans when this is over, is that our country, (as well as other nations) should have put a nationwide pandemic protocol in place decades ago. We've had plagues before like when Spanish flu hit in 1918 and Polio after that, as well as several other smaller ones since. They should have known this kind of situation would happen again someday. Having a protocol would have prevented these sudden and shocking societal and economic decisions that are making people panic buy and more seriously lose their jobs and businesses. 

I have faith in our country that we will learn from this and in the future have an actual plan we can set in motion early enough to avoid what is happening now.