May 3, 2020
re-opening
Everybody is getting restless, especially in states not hard hit, but that doesn’t mean those areas will not become hotspots. Anti-vaxxers are now banding together with other conservatives to protest the shutdown, even protesting wearing face masks. Why is that? It is hard to understand and disheartening to say the least. Here is a new model predicting more deaths as we move forward, 100,000 by the end of May.
This is discouraging for most of us, especially those of us who are doing the best we can and have flattened the curve with our behavior. Yes, we did this to protect our own selves, but also out of respect and concern for our loved ones and our communities. NPR had an interview on Fresh Air with a journalist a few days ago that compared our shutdown restrictions with other places. He talked about our approach and why we are still having such an increase in infections. We still have a long way to go before we are out of the woods.
There are some small signs of encouragement. The blood pressure class of medicines called ACE inhibitors have data showing they are safe in COVID-19 infections, reassuring to many people and their doctors. I found this story about using Artificial Intelligence to look for possible treatments for the coronavirus fascinating and hopeful. Slowly, bit by bit, solutions are coming.
But how to stay hopeful when things seem to be getting worse? This is not just about the numbers of deaths but also the conspiracy theories, the anger and hatred, the downright meanness of some of the people regarding others. These are challenging times. I have talked about this before. We are not the first to go through such upheaval. We will get through this by looking for beauty and looking for the helpers, creating community, being kind and seeing kindness. Caring for each other and caring ourselves. Hang in there.
Wash your hands and cover your nose.
And finally, my caveat is that this is my experience and my opinions, which are subject to change as more information is available, and not related to the organization I work for. Thanks for reading.
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-conservatives-think-that-it-is-okay-to-open-up-America-again/answer/Peter-Kruger
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/03/world/asia/coronavirus-spread-where-why.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/us/anti-vaxxers-coronavirus-protests.html
https://covid19-projections.com/#us-deaths-likelihoods
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/health/blood-pressure-drugs-coronavirus.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/29/847755751/compared-to-china-u-s-stay-at-home-has-been-a-giant-garden-party-journalist-says
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/smarter-living/coronavirus-how-to-stay-optimistic-.html