If it hasn't already been clear in the past several weeks, we are in this mess for the long haul. This pandemic, in multiple hots spots and red zones across the United States, is about to get worse before it gets better. MORE testing or false positives alone don't fill hospital beds, ICUs or need ventilators, but hospital capacity is filling up, and the State of Georgia has re-activated extra pop up bed capacity at the Georgia World Congress Center, as well as entered into a partnership with Piedmont Hospital Systems to bring more hospital beds online.
Here are a few doses of common sense, to expedite reduced severity of our looking stupid symptoms:
The Great Mask Debate — Keep touching your face with unwashed hands to adjust your mask, wear the mask below your nose, or pull it down under your chin when you are having a conversation...and you might as well go without. That said, the MASKS are barriers, they do trap more of what is coming out of your mouth, as well as those wearing masks whom you encounter. IF you remain convinced that the mask does nothing, then go ahead and stop covering your mouth or nose when you cough or sneeze, using Kleenex or the crook of your elbow. Those are all just human emissions to a greater degree, surely, purely harmless, without even considering human emissions from our southern hemispheres.
Hoax or Chinese Viral Conspiracy — As I review the daily conspiracy and counter-conspiracies on social media, often from the same folks posting...I am trying to discern where their head and heart lie. Is this all a media hoax, designed to take out an incumbent President which many national legacy media outlets want to embarrass and run out of office? Or a James Bond villain-like scheme by the Chinese, to kill old people, minorities and the medically fragile, with the Chinese using their own population first as Guinea pigs?
Real and Lasting Impact — Through trial and error and millions of patients globally, from hydroxychloroquine to Remdesivir and other anti-viral drug treatment options for this vial virus are improving, and the medical community and health care researchers are making steady progress as the race continues on multiple fronts for a reliable vaccine as well as better anti-body tests. And even as fatalities stagnate or decline, an increasing number of patients are recovering with lingering symptoms and maladies, from mild to severe, ranging from near-permanent loss of smell or taste to ongoing issues with breathing and proper circulation to reoccurring symptoms and reasonably frequent relapse.
In Schools...or Out — Though the calendar says it is time to ring the schoolhouse bell and resume normal school days, how many places of business, restaurants, churches, or other parts of your community are already there and remaining there? Why would we consider experimenting again first with our children, or our teachers? Knowing full well that whatever the experience is there, likely comes back home with our children as well? What about suspending the entire fall semester until late September or early October, and then plowing through Thanksgiving break and wrapping up a week prior to Christmas and Hanukkah?
PPP Loans Mature and other economic devastation — Those 3-month forgivable SBA payroll loans, which can be covered by Uncle Sam are all about to hit maturity. Expect a second, and significant round of layoffs during these early days of slight recovery, unless Congress and the Trump Administration further extend those Payroll Protection Program loans, as companies and particularly small business owners have to reach into their own pockets or reserves to keep the doors open and make payroll.
And finally, Atlanta City Hall and our state Capitol building is roughly a short two-block walk apart in our capital city, though increasingly miles apart on philosophy and approach to this pandemic.
I don’t see that changing without at least having a good face to face chat on Zoom, or when both parties are COVID free, the gentleman walking a few blocks to chat and iron out differences. Yes, a mask ordinance can be difficult to enforce, and differing local laws in 500+ municipalities and 159 counties would create an impossible regulatory patchwork, but attempting to muzzle criticism or differing viewpoints is equally inane. Please pick up the phone, and soon, without lawyers on the call, or at least send in your senior staff to the same room and WORK THIS OUT. And oh yeah, WEAR YOUR MASKS. Mike drop.
