“America’s Love Affair With COVID”

In the 16 days it took the USA to go from 4 to 5 million cases of COVID, we could have been almost 1/3 of the way to nearly complete containment of the virus.

16 days x 3= 48

IF we truly wanted to save lives, travel freely again (yes, even to the European Union & Canada, from which we are now blocked), reopen schools safely, rebuild our economy, and rebuild the lives of the poor, the jobless, we’d be well on our way.

As I’ve written in previous posts, it would only take 49 days.

If we went all in together, actually developed a national testing strategy, traced cases as they arise locally, had a national mask mandate, had serious fines and enforcement for those endangering communal health, did not reopen schools unless local virus positivity rate was below 4%, blocked highway exits and airports from misguided tourists (I saw firsthand how Gallup, NM and Native Indian reservations did this), and treated every neighborhood as its own bubble from which no outlander comes nor goes, we could actually get back to normal.

And it would only take 49 days.

Lord knows, we’ve completely wasted over 5 months already.

The only conclusion I can reach from this is that, indeed, we are truly exceptional. We really want to hold on to this virus, with all our might. We know what to do and have the world’s top research institutions and hospitals. Every nation—friend and foe—in the world looks to us for guidance.

And yet, we go against our better nature. We blatantly ignore our own recommendations, our own protocols and guidance for survival. We let each day that could bring us closer to full containment—or at least 95% so—slip by us, again and again and again. Days then become weeks, weeks become months. Months will become years.

It is now inescapable…

The USA: the only nation in love with COVID-19.