Re-opening, America?
It’s Not the Economy, Stupid!
Ditch That Phrase: ‘Open the Economy.’
“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”
“We’ve got a lot of livin’ to do!” A lot of time to make up for. We’ve been punished long enough.
I am a scientist: therefore, I am conservative, especially with my health. I wear a hat when I go outside, I wear long pants and (usually) I wear a long-sleeved shirt because “The Sun is Not Your Friend.” Especially if you are a cancer survivor.
Yes, I am high-risk, a senior citizen as well, that some might call elderly, but I was also trained as a scientist. Therefore, I am or strive to be objective. I believe in proof, in facts, in truth, in science being self-correcting.
The health experts have gone back on their recommendations during the current crisis. Does this mean they are never to be trusted again, as some would have us believe? Nope, it means that they have found out new things about this new virus who is slowly revealing itself to us. We are slowly honing in, becoming more accurate in our guesses, learning about this new and deadly critter.
Remember, how, at first, only a few weeks ago, we were told that wearing a mask was a waste of good masks and that we should save them for the health professionals? Even I thought they were unnecessary and that it was foolish to wear them since the virus is so small* it could get through the weave of the mask.
Then we found out that the viral particles become aerosolized and are coughed or sneezed or shouted or sung or talked or even exhaled in droplets of saliva (and other liquids) that spread out in 3-D before falling slowly to earth.
So now I think of a mask as a deflector of viral particles – it deflects the virus in droplets down toward the earth first before spreading out and people tend not to breathe on the path my exhaled viruses take on their way down there. There are now fewer particles spread out from my mouth and nose about five feet above the earth.
Words are Powerful
Words are powerful so choose them wisely.
We are not ‘re-opening’ our economy or ‘opening’ our economy as much as opening up our society. Currently much of our society lies ‘hidden’ or should be according to either the law or recommended guidelines.
Two Alternatives
But, as time has gone on, have we actually become safer or did we just get tired of staying home? I think the latter. We are so desperate for that good economy that we so rightly deserve that we are willing to sacrifice a few souls, as long as we don’t know them or they are elderly already. (Oops, that’s me.)
We are desperate to return to normal. Except for the minority of us who are introverts – the quarantine can never last long enough for us to be comfortable!
However, there is a third alternative: we are closing in on the virus, finding out where it really is via testing (identifying) and contact tracing, finding out where it has been or is, lying dormant thereby allowing those areas that are virus-less to return to normal, but slowly because we aren’t quite sure just yet.
Party and Protest!
We don’t want to stay home any longer. It’s boring. No action. No life. We have suffered enough. Let’s party!
To hell with that little bugger of a bug. He won’t get me! I am invincible. (Until the day when I’m not – and it’s all downhill from there. But that’s tomorrow and tomorrow never comes.)
We are young. We will live forever. People are going to beaches, they are playing pick-up football and they may very well be OK doing so. Most of them.
What our society is doing is not so much opening up but focusing the closing and opening to the locations that require closures or openings. We are becoming more focused and accurate in our identification of where the virus is and what is does – and how.
We are opening up rural communities because we are finding they don’t have much COVID-19 out there in the country. We are allowing small groups of healthy people to gather for short periods of time outdoors because we have learned more about our new ‘friend,’ the novel Coronavirus: we have learned that the virus ‘travels’ short distances (most likely less than six feet horizontally) and it takes a lot of it to get sick.
We are told we can open the economy or re-open the economy but there is no word about opening up our society. Is there a difference? You betcha! For me, at least. What about you? Safe or sorry?
*How small is small? Well, we can’t see most of the cells in our body because they are too small. We can’t see bacteria because they are about a tenth the size of a cell. We can’t also see a virus because it is about a tenth the size of a bacterium. That’s how small small really is.
Tomorrow: Distance, Duration, Disease and Location (D3L)
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