Dying from COVID-19 Could Be the Least of Your Worries
Churches are in the news as the latest iteration of the fight for “freedom” from restrictions related to efforts to suppress the spread of the coronavirus. A church with multiple locations in San Diego County has thumbed its nose at local health officials who have identified its Kearny Mesa location as a source of infections.
The Supreme Court has already told the State of New York that restrictions on worship functions are a no-no, and I’ll be willing to bet California’s defiant outlets will get a similar result.
These so-called religious types are endangering the community at large with their actions, and they don’t care. Why? Because the leaders of these institutions realize that without constant indoctrination, their followers may stray. Or worse, not give money to the collection basket.
Their flavor of religion says the rest of us don’t count. Unless we’re willing to be converted. And buy into their theocratic vision, which generally holds the rest of us to be unworthy “others.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began politicians --generally on the right side of the aisle-- have argued that it has an either-or relationship with the economy: Either we tolerate some amount of viral spread and enjoy a more vibrant economy, or shut down and watch the economy fail.
This is a false dichotomy because of the way the novel coronavirus is killing workers, slowing them down, pushing them to take leave from their jobs, and causing them to drop out of the labor force, hurting businesses, ruining family finances, and slowing the recovery.
Ultimately, there is no proof that “opening up” society benefits the economy, by the way.
Research from the University of Cambridge (using US economic data) suggests that the economic price of inaction could be twice as high as that of a “structured lockdown”. Sweden, often cited by anti-lockdown types, fared worse economically than other Nordic countries (who locked down and made government aid available) throughout the pandemic.
The people who think that the government should be run like a business are making a concerted effort to challenge public health authorities' attempts to slow the spread of the virus.
KUSI-TV and County Supervisor Jim Desmond are prominent local examples of this endeavor.
https://twitter.com/10News/status/1332686692709502976?s=20
The ultimate point of this discordance vs common sense and science isn’t about “freedom,” although its proponents will say that’s the case.
What about the “freedom” of drunk people to drive?
Or conversely, why are these same people disrespecting the freedom of women to visit Planned Parenthood facilities?
It doesn’t take too much deep thinking to realize that the root of this coronavirus denialism is really about reducing the respect and confidence the public has in government as an institution. Democracy is based on public trust of institutions. Destroy that trust and you’re halfway there to what ever kind of authoritarian regime suits your fancy.
Along with attacks on the media and science this is part of a three pronged initiative by reactionaries aimed at placing the needs of the individual over those of society at large.
Note that all-too-often it’s not the facts being cited in these complaints, it’s about demeaning the individuals carrying out public health initiatives.
Thus, Gov. Newsom becomes a dictator. San Diego public health officer Dr. Wilma Wooten gets death threats after her home address is circulated. President Donald Trump thanked the crowd at a campaign rally after chants of ‘fire Fauci’ broke out.
https://twitter.com/rdengstrom/status/1333079297905487872?s=20
Another aspect of the pushback from the coronavirus disbeliever set involves dismissing or discounting fatalities as a rationale for public health measures.
Less people (thanks to advances in treatment) dying now shouldn't be construed as permission for more people to get sick, disabled, or dead later on.
John Hopkins University tracking of the mortality rate among confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States shows that the confirmed death rate has steadily fallen to less than 2% after peaking at 6% in early May.
There are other methods of statistical analysis that can be used to either inflate or deflate mortality rates. For instance, if one compares the number of known deaths to the total population of the US the rate can only be expressed in thousands of a percent. Removing the modifier “known” gives another picture, increasing that number.
None of this changes the reality (as of today) that roughly 270,000 COVID-19 fatalities are among the top three causes of death this year. Put all those people in one place and we’re talking about more than the entire population of Escondido and El Cajon combined.
Here’s what should be the really scary part of the coronavirus pandemic: we’ve already had somewhere in the range of 1.3 to 5 million formerly hospitalized patients who will suffer from long term effects.
And then there are the non-hospitalized cases, which skew younger.
In a study of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 but were not hospitalized, 35 percent said they had not returned to their usual level of health an average of two weeks after their initial symptoms, including 26 percent of patients aged 18 to 34. Other medical research has estimated that 10 percent of people infected with COVID-19 will still experience symptoms three weeks after their initial infection, with a smaller share of patients experiencing symptoms for months.
Though every patient is different, many have reported shortness of breath, low-grade fever, coughing or debilitating fatigue as lingering symptoms. Some patients have described fatigue so difficult, they struggled to walk across a room, get out of bed or work in their previous occupation. Neurological symptoms, such as “brain fog,” or an inability to focus or recall memories, have also been observed in patients weeks after their infections. Several accounts from healthy and in-shape young adults have described being weakened by the virus and needing to take steps such as dropping out of college.
In conclusion, besides death, "freedom" from COVID-19 has plenty of other things to offer: a crappy economy, long term disability, and the destruction of democracy.
Some freedom, huh?
So here’s the deal. Wear a mask. Socially distance. And realize that those people telling you to do otherwise have destroying our democracy on their agenda.
https://twitter.com/QasimRashid/status/1333105987302068227?s=20
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Lead graphic is a generic crowd photo by Eric Wells