A while back I wrote that June 5 would be the day when we could re-examine our nationwide condition vis-a-vis Covid-19. Okay, that was yesterday, so where are we? Uh....we still don't know, but I think we've more or less given up on caring about the coronavirus for now and--who knows?--perhaps that is a step forward.
I heard the other day that in the USA we have performed 19 million Covid-19 tests so far. In a nation of 320 million people that has been enduring this virus for at least 12 weeks now, 19 million tests is barely a beginning. Until we do the tests--and keep doing them--we'll never know what's really going on.
I think we can easily say by now who the most at-risk citizens are: the elderly (especially those in group care facilities) and people with preexisting respiratory conditions. I haven't seen any evidence that we've properly locked down those facilities, though I think we have learned to not make them worse, which is a start. And we can probably predict, too, who the most likely spreaders are through contact tracing, so perhaps we can delude ourselves into thinking that testing doesn't matter. But I would still suggest that testing is all that matters.
Bill Gates is willing to pony up gajillions of dollars ($750 million was the figure I recently read) to get going on a vaccine. That's great, I'm all for it. But where are the benefactors for testing? The gov't (namely in the form of Food and Drug Administration) is too stupid to get of its own way, so we can't rely on the State to do what is right (or even obvious). But why haven't the billionaires stepped up to pave the way for the testing? Only testing will tell us how this thing spreads, how far it has spread, how much further it is likely to spread and how much we can expect future outbreaks. Without continued testing we'll never really know how the virus works or what it does once inside the body or which areas of the world are safer and which are more at risk.
The peak of death seems to have long passed, perhaps even the peak of the spread. And the fear we exhibited early on has given way to impatience. Somewhere around three weeks ago, I'd say, people started going back to their lives. We still don't have restaurants and bars or large gatherings, which seem destined to return to full scale only with a vaccine. But the rapidly rising unemployment has begun going back in the right direction and generally being out and about seems back to something like normal.
But make no mistake, we haven't learned anything yet. We don't know terribly much more than we did 12 weeks ago, we've just collectively decided we don't much care any more. We've decided that 'flattening the curve', which seemed like the only way to save civilization 10 weeks ago, is no longer important, we've moved on from it as easily we've moved on from the Tiger King phenomenon of oh so many weeks ago. But I'd say on June 6, flattening the curve is still the way to go until the vaccine arrives (a wide variety of reports, but it seems like by the fall we'll have...something). The virus is coming to get each and every one of us, perhaps fatally....that hasn't changed.
The People led us into the lockdown and the People have led us out. Are the People better educated now? (Doesn't seem like it, they're just less fearful, not exactly the same thing) Are we just luckier now? (Warmer weather and months of better habits have helped, but for how long?) Will the people be smart enough to go back into lockdown when the coronavirus is resurgent? (Uhh....I dunno) Testing would answer all these questions but no one seems to mind being ignorant for now.
Okay, I can live with that. Frankly, quarantining only brought improvements to my life, so I can't complain if everyone else is ready to seek out the 'new normal'. But until we get testing, regular testing, constant testing, we won't really know what this thing is. Oh well, hopefully it doesn't matter.
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