covid-19 & opening up the county
There was a comment mentioning I hadn't covered anything on the coronavirus in my introduction, and since this is the biggest issue facing us today, my first update will focus on this deadly virus.
I don't need to remind everyone how devastating this pandemic has been. We have seen mortality at an alarming rate, with nearly 100,000 lives lost in the US. To put that in perspective, it would equal a Boeing 737 crashing daily for the last 645 days, with no survivors, and is more than we have lost in every conflict since the Korean war. Monetary losses have been staggering. People have watched their investments and 401kâs take huge hits that will take some time to recover. Our national and local unemployment rate has reached nearly 20%. Businesses will be lost, while some suffer irreparable damage. Things we took for granted, such as visiting friends and family, seeing a loved one in an assisted living facility, watching or participating in team sports, traveling, or even getting a haircut, are all things that we have done without.
As painful as this all is, there is only one right answer when asked what our priority should be moving forward. Whether you are a Republican, Democrat, or anything in between, the safety and well being of our loved ones, front line workers, and society as a whole has to be first. These things we are without will come back, but it's inconceivable to put a cost on human life.
We do need to open our county, and nation back up to save businesses, jobs, and get our economy rolling again, but in order to do that safely we need a better strategy on PPE procurement, and much more testing is needed to find and isolate cases. We have tested only about 4% of our state and national population, while Pacific County lags behind at almost 2%. The unknown is why we isolate, it is why we are taking these extreme measures, and some pay the ultimate price.
As an example, my mother whom I haven't seen in over three months, is in a large memory care center who finally just last week got testing for all residents and staff. Shocking, and scary since we know an infection in one of these facilities is catastrophic.
We are all hungry for some good news regarding the pandemic, unfortunately that has resulted in a lot of misinformation, and conspiracy theories, much of which is for political or personal gain. Touting an unproven drug therapy or vaccine, disregarding medical advice, or misrepresenting the data and facts is not only dangerous, it's irresponsible. Our decisions to reopen and what we do to mitigate the virus must come from the professionals. Our state plan for reopening safely isn't perfect, but until a vaccine is available it's the best we have. The plan was constructed with some of the best in science, medicine, and epidemic modeling, including UW Epidemiology, making it the best road map we have to succeed.
This is not political. The virus does not care what affiliation we have, and it won't discriminate based on zip code. It's important that the decisions we make to reopen at every level of our government are carefully considered with the aid of our health professionals, so we don't regress, and cause more economic, and personal damage. Rushing to open county buildings to the public ahead of the state plan when all services are being met virtually, can only put us at a higher risk, and possibly prolong, or even take a step back in our opening plan. Some not leading by example on mitigation or sanitary measures only strengthens this nation's dangerous divide. The fact is we are all in this together and it will take all of us to defeat it.