The Legacy of the Covid-19

 

The title of this missive would suggest that the Covid-19 nightmare is over.  Not at all.   Here is a statistical update.  Worldwide, as of March 1, 2021, there have been 2,650,000 deaths and 120,000,000 cases.  In the United States there have been 534,000 deaths ad 2,940,000 cases.  To put this in perspective, in the six years of World War II, the United States lost 407,316 U.S. service men and women.

The coronavirus has been an unbelievable disaster throughout the world, but the American citizens have paid a disproportionate share of the pain.  Why?

There are probably many reasons, but two come to mind:

 

1.      Citizen Response:  I have family members who say they would rather have the disease than the vaccine.  That is a quaint position.  The only problem with this position is that one of the side effects of the coronavirus is death.  Several days ago, I watched my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates in a Spring Training game at LECOM Field in Bradenton Florida.  The television camera drifted into the outfield and focused on a bar and grill above the centerfield wall.   There were 25 patrons enjoying the game.  Only three were wearing essential protective marks.   What were they thinking about?  The coronavirus and the more recent variants are so lethal, particularly in Florida.   I love a good baseball game, hut not enough to put my life in danger under the current circumstances.

 

2.     President Donald Trump:  I have no interest in politicizing this missive.  The fact is that President Trump had advance knowledge that the coronavirus was coming to the United States and that it was lethal.   In an interview with Bob Woodward detailed in his second book about President Trump the following quote, “I dd not want to reveal this information to the American People because I did not want to set off a panic.”   Wow!

 

Later, President Trump was to select various arbitrary dates when the disease would simply disappear.   He also suggested we might inject into our bloodstream various chemical or biological agents.  

Ironically, President went on to contract the disease himself and fully recovered.

 

Where did the coronavirus come from?  The first known infections from SARS-CoV-2 were discovered in Wuhan, China.   Because many of the early infectees were workers at the Huanan Seafood Market, it has been suggested that the virus might have originated from the market.  However, additional research revealed that the disease may have been introduced into the Huanan Seafood Market by anyone from any country.  The actual genesis of the coronavirus remains a mystery. 

 

Covid-19 or the coronavirus has inflected uncalculated by massive destruction to the world economy and extraordinary devastation to public health and citizen safety.

 

We are now in a race in develop effective and safe vaccine and immunize all willing citizens.   Why is this so important?   We only need to look back to the Pig Flu of 1918 and 1919.   One pig in Iowa was responsible for 50,000,000 world-wide deaths.  In the United States 20-30 percent of all citizens contracted the disease and 690,000

U.S. citizens died.  The only way American could achieve herd immunity was by so many of its’ citizens contracting the disease and surviving.  Immunization for Covid-19 offers the hope that we might achieve herd immunity before the end of 2021.  It is by no means certain. 

 

                             Jan Ricks Jennings, MHA, LFACHE

 

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