We’ve reached nine months of the American experience with COVID-19. Businesses still remain nearly empty, movie theaters show films to almost no one, and many of us haven’t seen most of our friends in ages. A lot has changed in those nine months. We’ve elected a new president, a vaccine finally appears to be within our grasp, the light at the end of the tunnel has finally appeared, so perhaps we should try to limit the deaths before the finish line.
For its entire reign of terror, COVID-19 has thrived on apathy. Anti-maskers, partying college kids, and Floridians all have one common factor between them: They do not take this pandemic seriously. And to be fair, why should most of them? The pandemic’s mortality rate fluctuates around 3%, which would be not even 1:20 deaths. To them, COVID-19 doesn’t kill. Instead, it takes them out of commission for two weeks, and then they can go back to living life normally.
Of course, most of us don’t worry primarily about the overall mortality rate. If the danger seemed that low for everyone, I’m not sure we’d be here right now. However, the mortality rate for COVID-19 patients above the age of 70 hits numbers of over 10%. Now that causes more concern. Saying that the virus seems “just like the flu” would be like calling Amazon “just a website.” Try doubling the impact, and in COVID-19’s case, deadliness. Still interested in having house parties right now?
Honestly, at this point, you probably still don’t have a problem with it. Most people have been tired of this situation for months now. That’s fine, you can be tired, but many still actively contribute to moving the finish line backwards. We wouldn’t be in this mess if you all hadn’t decided that you just couldn’t cancel your beach vacations.
The only solution: a national lockdown. Not only does it fight the pandemic, it weakens the ability for apathy to foster. The difficulty to justify your behavior increases exponentially when a set of rules says that you shouldn’t be doing this. Currently, we’ve got an absolute mess of a guideline group, and quite frankly, it makes me feel like an idiot when I try to take it seriously, and I’m sure it does to many of you as well. The lockdown clears up those pages of guidelines into a few short sentences.
Don’t go out of your neighborhood except for essentials, and wear a mask when you do. By just following these simple rules, we’ll be out of here once the vaccine gets to our demographic and hopefully decrease the amount of deaths and hospitalizations that occur until then.
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