Your lead story on July 4 quoted Aileen Marty, an infectious disease specialist at Florida International University who said “we have perhaps one more chance to get this right” and “if we don’t massively change our behavior right now, to stop the transmission of the virus, then we are facing either another lockdown or a massive number of hospitalizations or deaths.”
She was not alone. We have heard expert after expert state that we have to do the right thing — as every other industrialized nation has done — or else we are headed for the worst fall ever. As my mother might have said, “If I hear about one more expert saying the obvious, I’m going to plotz!”
Unfortunately, judging from the pictures of teens dancing without masks on a Michigan beach, stories about barbecues and bars in Texas, and, of course, the thousands who gathered maskless and shoulder to shoulder at Trump’s Mount Rushmore and White House July 4 gatherings, at which he spat venom at the “Marxists” and “left-wing fascists” trying to remove Confederate monuments, many Americans have wasted this one last opportunity. In the meantime, the medical community in Texas is losing the battle to get people to follow proper social distancing and wear masks, despite massive PR campaigns.
The reason is clear: The President of the United States has from the very beginning called COVID-19 “a hoax,” has spread lies and rumors, and, as he has with climate change, cast doubt and sowed confusion about science. The fact that 40% of this country still believes him means that they won’t follow the advice of the experts.
The opinion of many now is that of Trump’s: “We have to just get over it.” Or, “We have to live with it.” But many will die with it. Like 100,000 more, according to experts. 100,000 will get it every day. (Many will have mild cases, but not “99%,” another number that Trump pulled out of his hat — and that his supporters will probably believe.)
The cruelty of those who say that the elderly and people of color, who have been hit especially hard by COVID-19, may just have to pay the price, and die, so “the economy will reopen” is matched only by their stupidity: As we see in Florida, Texas and Arizona, not following the advice of public health experts, and rushing to reopen bars, restaurants and hair salons, has resulted in their governors now having to backpedal and close their economies. And if thousands in a city are getting sick and dying, it will probably put a crimp on their bar scenes.
The missed opportunity to follow simple public health guidelines over the July 4 weekend is one of the saddest episodes in U.S. history, one that our founding fathers and mothers would be ashamed of.
David Gottsegen, MD
Holyoke