Covid-19: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

COVID-19: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

It doesn't matter where you live in the world or who you are. COVID-19 made its mark in history for 2020. If you were prepared, you probably have a stash of extra toilet paper and hand sanitizers stored in your garage, pantry or basement. For others, they learned a hard lesson to stock up on necessities to avoid racing desperately through supermarkets or gas stations seeking water or other perishables while covering their mouths and noses with scarves or whatever they could find, only to meet with empty shelves, frustration and an underlying sense of dread.

Researching this virus was definitely a challenge, given all the different news media outlets spewing their biased narratives, even “mistakenly” posting videos of overcrowded hospital emergency rooms like CNN recently did and openly apologizing for it.

With all this misinformation coming from the media, who do we believe?

There are many “experts” with their own opinions but the only ones we should be paying attention to are those that studied it and work to cure it. One of those people is Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served under six presidents and is on the front line of pandemics in the United States. On February 27^th, 2020, he stated that this virus has an incubation rate (infectious) of 2-14 days. That means you may not be symptomatic and will not know you have it, so you won't get tested, and unknowingly spread it to others. Because it's asymptomatic, it's at least three times more deadly than the flu.

The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), and the DOH (Dept. of Health) are front runners in posting real numbers and where I drew most of my information for this article.

What is Coronavirus or COVID-19 and is there a difference?

The Coronavirus or COVID-19 started in Wuhan, China in late December, 2019, according to China. It was renamed COVID-19 (D for disease) by the WHO (World Health Organization) on February 11^th, 2020. The novel (new) virus was named SARS-Co-V-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses on the same date. The “2” at the end of the name notes this is a close relative of the Coronavirus which caused the SARS global outbreak in 2002/2003 (SARS-CoV), which also started in China.

The name was changed from Coronavirus to COVID-19 because the WHO officially names diseases and they got together with the World Organization for Animal Health, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, who decided that they didn't want to cast bias or blame on a geographic area/location or a specific group of people related to the disease. In other words, they opted for political correctness but that will not change history or the origin of the virus.

There are four viruses in humans that cause common colds and three that cause more serious illnesses, such as respiratory problems like Pneumonia. But we will stick with these: SARS-CoV from 2002, and MERS-CoV in 2012 (Middle East respiratory syndrome), and SARS-CoV-2, which is what we are dealing with now.

COVID-19 Numbers since January 21^st, 2020 (First documented case)

As of April 2nd, 2020:

• Total number of cases - 213,144

• Total number of deaths – 4,513

Data includes both confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 reported to CDC or tested at CDC since January 21, 2020, except testing results for those repatriated.

• Travel-related - 1,144
• Close Contact -3,245
• Under Investigation (not tested yet) - 209,755

Why then does Italy have such a high number of deaths? As of March 27^th, 2020, Italy surpassed China in the death toll, arriving at 9,100 (according to World Meter). There are a few determining factors for this number in Italy.

One is the age of the population, with Italy having the oldest people of any country in Europe. Another reason is medical care. Italy, like many countries in Europe has a Government-run health system. Having older people with growing immune deficiencies due to age, require medical care and when a virus like this enters the country, it overwhelms that health system to its utmost capacity.

If you look at the map, you will see NY and NJ are at 5 digit amounts. That is primarily because people from China crossed over the ocean with the virus and spread it within the states, which then spread around to other states.

New York's own Governor Cuomo did not enforce or implement a social distancing order until just 11 days ago. It went into effect on March 22^nd, 2020, an excruciating 2 months after the first diagnosis of COVID-19 in the United States, which was from a man who traveled to Wuhan, China to his home in Washington. And California didn't enforce theirs until 3 days after NY.

It doesn't matter who you fault but the numbers don't lie and maybe if they had acted as swiftly as President Trump did, by banning travel on January 31^st, 2020, their numbers wouldn't be so high.

If you're curious, let's look at Influenza, more commonly known as the flu, and see how it compares to COVID-19.

The Flu – USA (This is not counting the rest of the world. USA ONLY)

• In 2018, deaths in one Winter in the USA killed over 80,000 people, the highest death toll in 4 decades.

• From 2014-2015, the Flu spread through 48 states leaving 56,000 people dead and killing 148 children.

I suppose the question here would be, why does the world shut down for COVID-19 when the flu has higher numbers? In reality, it doesn't matter. We have to deal with the present, not the past.

Regardless of how you feel about this, it upended your life in one way or another. Some of you are working from home, others weren't given the option and may have gotten laid off, while others are still working at their “essential” jobs.

Either way, good things come out of bad sometimes and from this, you got to see people in Italy singing from their balconies, closer in spirit than ever before. You witnessed home videos of people playing with their pets, dancing, laughing. You spend more time with your family and children, brushed up on your cooking skills, questioned your careers, maybe even started a home business or learned new hobbies.

Maybe this brought you closer to God, religion, or spirituality. Maybe you pray more and appreciate the things you took for granted, like long conversations with friends you can't visit or family that may be at high risk or too far away, or maybe you realized how strong and resilient you can be alone.

Wherever you are, remember this will pass like everything before it. Whatever questions you may have about what is going on, it is very important to remember that you are the best researcher if you take the time to look for your own answers about what is happening in your world.