This week @CDCgov issued a health advisory for the mystery pneumonia outbreak in China. Disease outbreaks can happen in any country, at any time. Preventing epidemics takes sustained investment & support. #PreventEpidemics https://t.co/n5FYdDc2Y8 pic.twitter.com/wY0RWJUNfE
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) January 10, 2020
It’s been over a year since the world knew that something big and bad was happening in Wuhan.
It’s been almost a year since Anne Laurie has been flogging COVID news round-ups first thing in the morning.
It’s been a year where we have learned a whole lot. We know that sharing the same air is a way to quickly spread the disease. We know that masking up works pretty well in slowing the spread. We know that spreading out and minimizing physical interactions is an effective way to slow spread. We even have multiple vaccines on multiple platforms starting to go into peoples’ arms.
And yet, the United States is on pace to have 4,000 to 5,000 people die per day in a few weeks as we’re having 250,000 to 300,000 people infected per day right now.
And yet the hospital region where I work in North Carolina has sufficient available staffed ICU beds to handle a bad three vehicle car crash spread over several counties.
And yet, Los Angeles and Southern California is getting extraordinarily close to invoking crisis standards of care.
We knew this was coming and we did not want to be bothered to do enough to avoid this.
On The Road – Albatrossity – Big Bend National Park #2
satby
Well, more than 1/2 of us have been doing as much as we personally can given the complete lack of governmental support. Not enough, and proof that “the market” and “the private sector” are unable to deliver the kinds of outcomes a government can.
Cameron
Who is “we?” There was one person in the USA who had the authority and access to the tools to put the brakes on this. Unfortunately he was too busy with golf, rallies, TV, and whining to do anything useful.
Ohio Mom
Meanwhe, laying low for an entire year is getting to me and my family. We are bored and cranky.
I try not to dwell on it but there is a long list of missed opportunities and events that can get me feeling very resentful.
The day that will really get to me is my birthday, March 13. Last year, after a delightful supper out, I requested we stop by the supermarket for some toilet paper. I’d heard it was what all the cool kids were doing.
The shelves were stripped bare and it was that moment I knew in my gut that we had entered uncharted territory. Ohio’s lockdown started three days later.
sab
@Ohio Mom: Yes. It has been a long year. My grand-daughter turns seven next month. No birthday party. No congratulatory hugs. No shopping for a present. Small thing to whine about, but childhood is so short.
And we’re extremely lucky. Everyone who wants one has a job in my family. Only a handful of Covid cases and they were all mild.
BellyCat
Dating a Doc in Western PA. Last two weeks attending in ICU. It’s bad. Staff are struggling mightily and fatigue is enormous. Any free bed is immediately filled and mortality based on age is sobering.
ICU’s are currently like triage in an entirely avoidable civil war. Let’s hope there is at least some kind of reckoning for those responsible some day (soon!).
glc
Seems like a good time to express my thanks to BJ and AL once again.
Since I’m not going to do that on a daily basis … other than perhaps internally.
matryoshka
“We knew this was coming and we did not want to be bothered to do enough to avoid this.”
Same as with climate change. We’ve had 50 years of warning. Something is wrong with us.
TomatoQueen
Thank you and thank you again to Anne Laurie for sterling service, and indeed also to all those who have contributed to our understanding of the pandemic. On the individual level, which is where it counts after all, I can list my sources of information with B-J at the top, and know that I have what I need to make the right decisions for myself and my son, who is utterly dependent on me for everything, most especially health and safety. Cole owes you a big raise.
D Gardner
I think “sufficient” should probably be “insufficient” near the end:
MobiusKlein
Why is it so hard to comply? Because life goes on, and many choices are forced upon us.
My elderly dad in Central California underwent a surgery in Dec, and some of the family needed to go down to help out. Should we have gone, given the Covid situation? Probably no.
And we need to go down again to get his house safe for his return, as his hoard make it unsafe to return to. Again, bad idea. But the alternatives also suck – he does not have the $ to move in to an assisted living facility for an extended time.
Multiply my ‘life goes on’ moments by 300 Million over a year, and you can see why we’re screwed.
StringOnAStick
It was thanks to BJ and the daily posts that I started beating the drum at my then office; I was told on two different occasions that I was overreacting. I ended up retiring 9 months early rather than take the risk; my former boss sent me a nice long text on Christmas night about missing having me in the office and he said “you sure were right about this virus!” . I can say I only knew that because of the BJ writers and community, so thanks to you all and especially Anne and David.
My minor problem is we moved to a new state and it is impossible and irresponsible to try to make new friends right now so I’m feeling that, and hoping for faster vaccine rollout for everyone as the year rolls on.
ballerat
Some 71 million so-called Americans along with most of the Republican leadership and right-wing media did not want to avoid that. In fact they thought of it as civil war they were waging and did everything they could short of an insurrection to kill as many of the rest of us as they could.
And then they actually did an insurrection.
It’s a civil war, and we best acknowledge it if we are to win it.