As of today, over 21 million Americans have reportedly caught covid-19. This includes over one million New Yorkers and nearly 457 K people from New York City. More than 38 K New Yorkers have died from the virus. We have been dealing with this pandemic for a little more than a year and have been hit specifically since March. As of this date, people are still divided about how to respond to this. People still don't want to mask up or socially distance themselves. I am bored with it.
I have already stated that I have my doubts about everything I have heard. No, I don't trust the government. This doesn't mean I am going to take a chance and expose myself.
I have an occasionally intelligent right-wing African-American friend who recently told me that we should reopen the country and that we are living in fear. According to him, we are always going to face viruses and we should just get on with our lives. Like I said, occasionally intelligent. The number of casualties and fatalities indicates we should be doing more. The actions indicate that a lot more of us will get sick and die from the coronavirus.
When it comes to the reactions to covid-19 I have found that some of the biggest problems come from people who are resistant to change. From March, people have dealt with this disaster as if it is temporary. It may just be. However, learning about recent new strains of the virus tells me that we may be in this routine for a very long time. The vaccine that is being given out isn't a cure for covid-19. Like the influenza vaccine, you can still get sick. So even if 95% of the country gets vaccinated, we would still need to wear masks, and socially distancing would be the smart thing to do.
I mentioned months ago that we should have been prepared for this. Teleworking is something we should have enforced a decade ago. Maxi-flex hours and alternate work schedules should have been done by the majority of jobs, private industry, and civil service. But why aren't we having a discussion about Covid in 2022? Truth be told an intelligent society SHOULD be having that talk about a worst-case scenario meaning we never get rid of this virus. We lost lives and jobs because we weren't prepared for today. Why aren't we taking measures to make sure we aren't standing with our pants down in July, December, or next year. How do we do this? What should we be focused on?
Well, the worry now is that hospitals are going to be overwhelmed by the number of infected. I am no expert, but how about a long term plan on how to deal with the maximum amount of civilians, except placing them and treating them based on how sick they are? We are doing that on some scale now, but we may need to start brainstorming more ways. Off the top of my head, how about using some things not being used now? How about using the ships and yachts which are no longer able to run cruises for patients needing basic care? Or creating Urgent Care Facilities in neighborhoods, near the testing sites, to house people with mild symptoms?
New York City restaurants are getting hit hard compared to restaurants upstate. Why aren't we trying to develop ways the restaurants can do business in the cold? You mean a group of people with money vested in that industry can't brainstorm how to make a living without people packing into a restaurant at the same time?
Sports baffles me the most. Teams with players making millions of dollars to do something we dream of doing should be able to quarantine for the length of their season. I make less than a fraction of that to work from home and readjust my life and it works fine. Getting 25 baseball players together for a few months into a reasonably sized bubble shouldn't be that hard for the salary they make. We only think it is unreasonable because we believe the pandemic will be over during the summer. What if it isn't? Are we that stubborn to not deal with the future? Or are some of us just like people who can't let go of their rotary dial telephones, thinking one day we will have a need for them?
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