COVID 19 WTF

For the past two months here in Oregon we've been sheltering in place do to the Corona Virus COVID 19. I have been watching the news both domestic and global to keep informed about this pandemic. Seeing the numbers of infected and dead sends a cold shiver down my spine. Looking at the footage from China, Italy, and New York is shocking. The lack of testing and the lack of protective gear and masks for the medical community has taken many lives. No one on this Earth is immune and the numbers are still rising.

Opening Back Up

So now all the sudden the President and his cabinet are setting out guidelines for private businesses to reopen so that the American Economy isn't hit to the point of stalling our financial institutions. They are afraid of losing money and that we will suffer a collapse worse than the Great Depression. The leaders in the Senate and House are creating stimulus payments to the American public and forgivable loans to small businesses.

The program is labeled The Universal Stimulus Act. The universal payment of $1,200 for people over the age of sixteen and $500 per child up to three children was supposed to prop up the failing economy. The issue is that people lost their jobs on a mass scale and in many local state economies are too expensive to live off of $1,200 for one month. The unemployment is giving those that lost their jobs $600 on top of their regular unemployment benefits. And now another month has come and they are talking about yet another stimulus package coming down the line later this month of May. This situation cannot be sustained forever. Hence the rush back to business as usual.

COVID 19 Rekindled

All the health experts agree that the virus is still in the middle of its spread and that it is not safe to let people congregate in groups and in close proximity to each other. So the question is what do we do now? The U.S. President Trump is visibly shaken by the enormity of the pandemic and he and many other politicians are calling for a return to quote unquote normal life. But that life is over now. We exist now in a new reality where social distancing and things like cloth masks and hand sanitizer are your own personal defense against the disease. A reality where children are learning from home and people are working now from their homes. The low wage employees at markets and fast food are considered essential while Truckers taxi drivers and delivery services are now high risk jobs and these people are risking their lives daily to keep us all fed. There is a disconnect between the people and the government. Here is what I see.

So What Does This All Mean?

A Pandemic is a GLOBAL disaster. It is akin to something as unthinkable as a meteor destroying a large portion of our population or a super volcano causing a mass die-off. But this disaster happens over a long span of time. It is not something we are all seeing or dealing with everyday. Nothing as awe-strikingly visible as a massive smoking crater filled with bubbling fire. But those on the front lines. doctors, nurses and first res ponders have seen the devastation this disaster has caused. Bodies in refrigerated trucks, bodies in the streets. In some of the worst hit areas things have even gotten to the point where governments have taken draconian measures to secure their populations and stop the spread.

We are divided in our efforts to quell this pandemic. Governments are pointing fingers and our politicians are at odds as to what this pandemic will ultimately do to society. This is not the time for division among the nations of man. This is a GLOBAL disaster and no one in the end will be untouched. We as in the human race should put aside politics and disagreements and focus our global efforts to extinguish COVID 19 and return our world to a safe existence for all mankind.