The Coronavirus question that must be answered before Ohio reopens
If you watched the HBO series, sometimes it was hard to remember who was a vampire and who wasn’t. I never watched the kiddy version- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but, at least you knew that if you saw them in daylight, they weren’t a bloodsucking threat.
Yesterday, Ohio Governor, under pressure from the flip-flopping-fool in the White House, has announced May 1st as the day to “reopen America again”- which is good enough reason to NOT reopen anything. Anyone who says “reopen again” is foreshadowing what’s going to happen over and over, if we jump the gun. Columbus Restaurant Impresario Cameron Mitchell said that he can reopen one time, not twice.
If you want to “reopen America” the word “Again” should never be included, but Trump is in love with his “Make America Great Again” fictional brand and can’t let go.
Without enough PPE, without rapid and accurate testing for all, and without a proven and tested care regimen, opening too soon, is a huge risk. Need proof? Look to what the Navy has discovered when they did what we haven’t- test everyone in a control group:
The Navy’s testing of the entire 4,800-member crew of the aircraft carrier – which is about 94% complete – was an extraordinary move in a headline-grabbing case that has already led to the firing of the carrier’s captain and the resignation of the Navy’s top civilian official.
Roughly 60 percent of the over 600 sailors who tested positive so far have not shown symptoms of COVID-19, the potentially lethal respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, the Navy says. The service did not speculate about how many might later develop symptoms or remain asymptomatic.
“With regard to COVID-19, we’re learning that stealth in the form of asymptomatic transmission is this adversary’s secret power,” said Rear Admiral Bruce Gillingham, surgeon general of the Navy….
“It has revealed a new dynamic of this virus: that it can be carried by normal, healthy people who have no idea whatsoever that they are carrying it,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper told NBC’s “Today” morning show.
Source: Coronavirus clue? Most cases aboard U.S. aircraft carrier are symptom-free – Reuters
The unanswered question can be answered in 2 weeks, the “incubation period” we’ve been working with as fact so far. What happens to the 600 who tested positive who’ve been quarantined. In 2 weeks, will they still test positive? Can they spread it? Even after 2 weeks? Are there people who are no longer safe to walk among us who never come down with it- but continue to spread it? Vampires- who can walk in daylight in the world of True Blood.
Since we’re not even testing everyone who is suspected to have it, or had it (like my employee who went home on Friday Mar 13 and was down for the count for almost a month), we don’t know who could be spreading it.
If you send kids back to school, and they all become carriers, and don’t show symptoms, we will effectively kill off every senior taking care of their grandbabies in short order.
The biggest risk we take is killing off our medical professionals, who are already in short supply to manage another surge. Without instant testing for all, we can’t risk a second wave until we have separate hospitals for managing covid cases only, staffed by those who have already had it, or have tested positive and not developed symptoms. We’re not there yet.
This is why who you elect is important. The ability to analyze real data and make informed decisions is crucial and in this case, life and death. We’ve already seen that Trump can’t be trusted to screw in a light bulb, but for Dewine and Acton to consider this early open date is reckless.
The economy can never come before life itself. As to how we pay for this all, well, that’s a topic for another post. But, maybe, you might want to consider that we start by consolidating governments and reducing administrative overhead, before we cut safety forces. I’m also going to suggest that the idiots in Huber Heights, who already bought into the public entertainment industry with the Rose center, should be removed from office for wasting 2.8 million by buying a shopping mall with tax dollars in the middle of a pandemic. Place a bet they didn’t have a “Pandemic” rider on their Rose center income stream, which will more than likely lose two entire seasons of revenue- or at least be half of what it was thanks to social distancing requirements.
In the meantime, be smart, stay in as much as possible, and wait until everyone can get an N95 mask, testing is cheap, quick and available, and that we have proof that people can’t be superspreaders forever.
David – I’m unusually surprised by your posturing to be part of the problem instead of part of the solution. You pride yourself in being an intelligent, heady thinker, yet much like worthless – partisan Sherrod Brown, you seem obsessed with using any and all opportunities to rail against The President without sharing any practical ideas to solve this situation. Truthfully, would you prefer foggy Joe Biden on crisis management? Like you, I’m anxious, uncertain and admittedly frightened at this new world infection; but, I can see that the incompetent elected leaders, notably Pelosi, Schumer and Brown are spendthrifts on a crash mission to bankrupt this country. I’m not in total agreement with a ‘jump the gun’ plan to reopen business and get folks off the couches and back to work. However, you’ll surely agree that a tax and spend policy is unsustainable if you don’t have the support revenue from the tax side. Nationally, The real necessity is a ban on global travel into the country – and, any citizens that choose to go abroad can’t return until the ban is lifted. Ohio could/should fare better than some states, simply because the infections are running as a lower percent of the 11.1M Buckeye population than states like Louisiana, New York and New Jersey. Despite all the accolades, the ineptitude cloaked in excuses by Husted in processing unemployment has been an abyssmal failure. The Department for Aging has failed to deliver food for seniors to aid in the shelter in place order. Oh, sure, their happy face director was a guest star on the Mike and Amy show 2 weeks ago; but, her grandiose plan was never effectively implemented. In fact, my 90 year old father in law received word that they couldn’t take on any new applications. Still, despite not running faster and jumping higher, DeWine will most probably develop a plan that is a slow burn to reopening again without too many screw-ups. Locally – here in the Miami Valley – aha, that is the weak link to recovery. Directed by arrogant, out of control Whaley the city… Read more »
@Jackson, you don’t present anything even remotely sounding like a solution either, but continue to point fingers. The economy isn’t the problem right now. Keeping people alive is. And that includes finding someway to placate the masses. Print the money- distribute it- and shelter in place- and hope like hell this thing doesn’t mutate.
I presented a solution early on- which included closing the stock market, suspending all mortgages, loans, and credit card debt for as long as it takes to get the virus extinguished- combined with a universal basic income.
Closing the borders now is kinda laughable- it’s already here.
Try again Jackson.