A Glimmer of Hope

[DocStressor]

Here is an interesting fact: Fewer than 1 out of 100 people who were infected by the poliovirus showed any symptoms other than mild diarrhea. It is an intestinal virus that only rarely affected the nervous system causing paralysis. Yet people couldn't wait to get vaccinated. Compare that to COVID-19 which causes severe symptoms and death in a much greater fraction of the infected population. Yet many folks are still hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccines since COVID is nothing more than the flu in their minds.

 

[southofnorth]

I do not know where you live, but it really does matter.

I go where I want. I purchase what I want either delivered or at the store. When I am in Texas, nothing has changed and it is normal. That is what I see and that is what I experience. I guess it all depends upon where you live. From my perspective, there does not seem to be any reason to resume normal activity. Be that as it may, some one, whomever that may be, is controlling the decision on how people may resume their lives in a particular piece of geography. From what I see, people are ready to explode in order to pursue a normal life. It is time to come out of hibernation. However, do whatever you want.

I personally am planning an RV trip to Ruidoso and Big Bend before it gets too hot.

I’m also in Texas and we must live in two different areas. Where I live, there are people that are going about life as normal and it shows up later when there’s a spike in hospitalizations from COVID. There’s also ongoing efforts to slow the spread and keep people from going to bars and and large gatherings. There is a good reason for campuses to remain closed to all students—they can be notoriously crowded places. The library, dorms, classrooms, etc. are all places that could easily turn into super spreaders.

I can’t imagine anybody other than a hermit is happy with having to control themselves and limit how much and where they go out, but until we can stop inundating hospitals with patients, there has to be some amount of control forced upon people that are unwilling to cooperate otherwise. The issue isn’t that some people will get a little fever, but rather than hospitals will fill up and then won’t have room for other emergencies. Plus, even if the mortality rate is low, are there people you can point to and say, “yeah I’m willing to let them die so I can [insert activity here]”? As someone who currently has a family member in the hospital from COVID, it really sucks to see people in large groups and then going to work or school or public places and not following simple protocols like mask wearing and social distancing.

It’ll likely be a couple of months before we’re anywhere near normal, but until then please consider people other than yourself. We all want to return to our normal lives, but we can’t until we get things under control and can handle any residual infections.