President Trump’s lack of setting national policy with stringent guidelines is leading Americans to run amok. When the Centers for Disease Control advised Americans to wear face masks last week, he said he probably won’t wear one. Meanwhile Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, is in the ICU for precisely the same reasons at present; failure to take coronavirus as a serious deadly threat.
Local ordinances regarding beach closures in some states are literally drawing lines in the sand between people gathering versus deserted areas. Georgia’s Governor finally announced social distancing claiming to have just learned a week ago that people not showing symptoms of coronavirus are spreading this pandemic.
Triage management at hospitals is the reason why all of us are presently restricted to self isolation. While it seems natural to resume outdoor markets as viable venues we must consider how far aerosol particles can travel on a warm breeze as compared with indoors. And with everything blooming sneezing is more frequent for certain even for folks without serious allergies.
The lack of federal oversight is making every American more vulnerable to increased risk of the spread and exposure of COVID19. And it doesn’t simply weed out the elderly and weak amongst us. This virus is unpredictable in severity among our population. By spreading it further throughout our communities we will increasingly see ‘hot spots’ emerge that will overwhelm already pressed hospital staff and resources.
When our township’s leaders begin undermining policy set under the present state of emergency guidelines it also puts undue burden upon local and state law enforcement charged with duties to carry out our current social restrictions in place.
Until we have widespread testing containment of this pandemic is impossible. In the meanwhile our children are not allowed to attend school, all sports including regattas are canceled. So why as adults can we not wrap our heads around the need to avoid congregating at a farmers’ market?
Until Americans adapt to wearing face masks (which is not presently in evidence as being adopted as a widespread precaution in the US), we cannot afford to stress our medical workers unduly and place everyone at greater risk of losing a mother, father, sister, brother, etcetera, or ourselves, simply because it would be so much nicer to purchase provisions by taking a walk in the park.
Virginia Kerr
Chestertown
Deirdre LaMotte says
Thank you for this important piece. I totally agree. I could not imagine, at this time, being among any group, inside or out.