At times in my life I want everything. Whatever I touch or think would turn to into gold. That, I realize is delusional thinking but quite frankly fun to do. The imagination soars, the flights of fancy are serving cocktails and everything I desire is served on a silver platter accompanied with delectable pupus. Thus, here I sit desiring, hoping and praying that this Corvid virus would up and disappear. Poof! We'd all go to the seashore! Sincerely, mine is just a wish. I have taken the cautions very seriously: washing my hands well and frequently; always wearing my mask everywhere; sticking close to home; and socially distancing from all I encounter. Most terribly that's not the case for more and more Americans. They've foolishly abandoned the precautions and so have their leaders and their states. Gee, guess what? their number of infections have risen dramatically. This is so discouraging especially to my optimistic mind and heart.
Even though our citizens have been warned time and time again that this virus is a killer, that even if they contract a "light case of the virus" they could be looking at months, to years of recovery from it's deleterious effects. Lung, heart, immune system damage--- just to name a few of the repercussions. One of the reasons that people are taking this so lightly is no one is filming inside the hospitals the horrors of what people who have contracted the virus are going through. We'd need to see, in real time, our people fighting the virus. Obviously, the filming is far too dangerous for the person filming and for anyone in the hospital. But, as with the murder of George Floyd, seeing is believing and has galvanized our nation. Here is reality: one of my friend's wife, an ICU nurse said, "if people are admitted to ICU they are either going to die or come out of this disease with life long physical problems". That seriously effects all of us. This will be the ruination of many a family's finances and their future, to say nothing of the enormous grief and heartbreak.
In the NW part of Canada the infection numbers are far below ours in the states. Sensibly, they have restricted their borders from US citizens with the exception of people who want to get to Alaska. Those who are not very ethical have claimed they are going to Alaska and have been caught lodging all over BC and Alberta. Not nice. One of the reasons the Canadians have much better numbers, lower infection rates and deaths than we do, is the Canadians have citizens who respect mask wearing and social distancing. Now they too, might have the invasion of the unmasked. Hopefully those prevaricators will be caught and sent back. Catch and release just like fish.
I live in a tourist community and it is gravely frustrating to see tourists flouting Governor Inslee's mask order for the entire state. These people believe they are special and do not have to keep our population safe. What is really sad is my community has one the most elderly populations in the state. How can these maskless, heartless creatures be okay with possibly infecting some of our beloved elderly people? This could literally cause their death. That is an outrage.
Of course, as you know, the person who serves as the best 'bad case example' is--- our president. Currently, despite the probability of infection, he holds those political rallies, [that we pay for] and he goes maskless. He mistakenly touts his handling of the virus as brilliant, paying no attention to the death toll and the infection rate. His supporters, as sheep, bleating along go maskless also. Proof of how well he has handled the Covid virus is we're nearly number one! as one of the worst in the world for Covid deaths. 2.5million have contracted the virus and of those millions 123+thousand have died. All of those citizens, all of that torment and possible impoverishment for their families. This is an underestimation, a gross underestimation. The latest by the CDC says the "estimate of how many have contracted Covid is probably 10 times that 2.5 million figure" so really 20 million cases. And of the death rate, it's probably so much more because many, many people avoided hospitals and have just quietly died at home. T suggestion "we need to quit doing all the testing."
One of the big reasons for my tireless day dream of the virus disappearing is that I dearly, passionately, miss seeing my grandchildren and my sons. The depressing fact is according to 511 epidemiologists [from and article in the New York Times], to a person, said they would not get on a plane for one year. One year. Yet people are starting to fly all over the country. I am sticking with the scientist and the scientific research. Grounded. Do I want it otherwise? you bet I do.
susansmagicfeather copyright 2020 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved
