The United States has surpassed 250,000 deaths directly attributable to COVID-19. This nation is number one in the number of cases and mortalities – unenviable statistics. While finger-pointing has gone on since the beginning of the pandemic, I believe blame needs to be placed where it properly belongs.
I do not blame the virus. It’s not an autonomous being. Its only mission is to find a target cell and hijack its genetic apparatus to produce more viruses. No, I blame certain sentient creatures. For starters, our political leaders and their capon-esque enablers have failed to formulate a coherent, nationwide strategy to test, trace, and treat the disease. Is it any wonder that two out of the three branches of the US government are COVID-19 superspreader venues?
I also blame the virus-deniers. They eschew masks in the name of “freedom”. Freedom isn’t free, to use a popular conservative phrase. It takes hard work. It also takes cooperation between people. You can’t fight a pandemic by being a rugged individualist and doing what you damn well please.
Hospitals and their staffs are overwhelmed as a result of the inertia and denial regarding the pandemic. In some states, there are no intensive care beds available. This limits the number of other serious illnesses or procedures that can be performed. A patient who’s forced to wait for an elective coronary artery bypass surgery may wind up in the emergency room with a massive heart attack – or worse. As bad as the situation is in large city medical centers, rural hospitals have it even worse. These facilities can’t attract traveler nurses or outside doctors because of salary requirements, so the existing staffs are stretched thin. In North Dakota, the governor has decreed that nurses and doctors who are positive for the virus but asymptomatic to keep working. This puts patients, staff, and their families at risk.
We need a single central strategy to deal with the pandemic, not 50+ separate ones. This is going to cost money; however, the cost of the current strategy is too much in terms of lost lives and productivity. This can’t wait until the new administration takes office. The current cast of characters needs to have pressure put on them to do right by the American people. Get mad, raise hell, buttonhole your recalcitrant representatives. And stay healthy.
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