We’re in a nationwide panic about the coronavirus, but I’ve got some thoughts about it that should help you sleep better at night, if for no other reason than that they might bring clarity to a range of issues we’re being forced to confront at the moment.
1. This is China’s fault, and yes, finding blame matters. China’s regime arrested and punished those who saw the epidemic coming as early as December when they tried to warn others. The United States, along with the rest of the world, needs to apply pressure to that country to take precautions and operate with a basic level of transparency that will ensure this never happens again.
That’s not a “racist” sentiment; it’s vital. The evidence so far indicates that the virus originated at a seafood market in China, where mass consumption of illegally traded and trafficked wild animals is still very popular, in spite of laws banning such activity.
Chinese law is enforced selectively, and Chinese authorities unfortunately turned a blind eye to such practices as the trafficking of animals like the pangolin, a scaly, armadillo-like creature that many Chinese people think carries medicinal value when ingested. (And you thought the anti-vaccine people were weird.) China’s government needs to crack down on all of that nonsense because it’s getting too many people outside of their own borders sick.
2. The Trump administration has handled this health scare poorly. There were too many conflicting messages from the president and health officials. Trump was trying to make it seem as though the coronavirus was already contained, even as his public health officials were adamant that this was going to spread quickly. The health officials were right — the virus was never contained, and things were going to get worse before they got better.
On top of that, and most devastating of all, has been the shortage of test kits. These are needed both to treat those with the virus and to give us a clearer sense of how far and wide the disease has spread throughout the country. When we know how many people have the virus, we’ll then know how deadly it really is. Experts say the fatality rate is likely lower than the 3% it’s mathematically at right now, but we can’t know for certain without exponentially more testing to see how many apparently healthy people are carrying the virus.
The shortage has forced health providers to set a ridiculously high standard for who can and should receive a test, resulting in the turning away of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people who exhibit symptoms but are nonetheless deemed unlikely to have the disease. The bar is set right now to where, unless you claim to have made out with someone from Wuhan who had tested positive for the virus, you probably won’t be tested.
More test kits are needed, and the administration has not instilled confidence among the public that an adequate number of kits are being delivered at emergency speed.
3. Democrats are using this scare for cynical gain, even as people are literally dying and even though they don’t appear to have any proposals that would manage the crisis any differently.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who looks as if he’ll be his party’s presidential nominee, said in a recent debate that he was in office for the management of the 2014 Ebola crisis, and that if he were currently president, he would manage the situation the same way. It’s a stupid comparison because Ebola doesn’t spread as easily as the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that Ebola requires direct physical contact of bodily fluids between humans, whereas the coronavirus can apparently transmit through the air by way of a sneeze or cough. Someone with Ebola can sit in a packed movie theater without infecting a single person, whereas someone with the coronavirus can spread it by simply clearing his throat.
Sweet dreams tonight.
