When my son was younger, I told him that besides his faith, the only thing that really matters is to have his worldview firmly grounded in facts. It does a person no good to live a life of conjecture and hyperbole, passing along urban myths and conspiracy theories and popular memes on social media. The only thing that matters is to seek out factual information, that does not originate from any ideologically extreme source, and know what is true.
The old adage that “the truth will set you free,” applies to current culture, politics, lifestyle, as well as pandemics. Making certain that you are firmly grounded in truth, in vetted, unbiased and scientifically-based information, is important for positioning yourself to have a viewpoint that aligns with the truth. Today, it can mean living another month or helping your fellow citizen to live another month.
During this pandemic, many well-known conservative pundits have jumped ship and are singing in chorus; a chorus of misinformation, hysteria and baseless claims. Many of these same people have previously committed to avoiding this behavior and sticking with carefully reviewed and accurate information. For some reason, since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, they have begun walking in lock step as purveyors of bad information that assumes low fatality rates, ignoring the experience of doctors and nurses worldwide and ignoring the devastating consequences of reigniting a second wave of community spread that might overwhelm hospitals. Additional deaths do not seem to be a concern to these people.
Probably the most prominent of these pundits, a national radio personality who I pray for every day, has thrown aside his commitment to providing accurate information and has engaged in a one-topic campaign that ignores reality and medical evidence. Turning the tuning dial on the radio only accesses more conservative pundits who sound like a broken record. Their only topic is how stay-at-home orders are government overreach and oppressive and that much of this pandemic is media hysteria.
Is it no longer the government’s responsibility to protect citizens? Do we throw open the borders based on this logic? Do we close down Homeland Security and the TSA because protecting the well-being of people is no longer a function of government?
The argument is without merit. One characteristic we have learned about SARS-CoV2 (the new coronavirus) is that it is incredibly contagious and infectious. When we tell people to go back to normal, return to congregating and ignoring social distancing, we are ignoring the high likelihood that the virus will return to spreading in the community at a high rate. This means that there is a greater chance of more deaths and more hospitals under the strain of ICU’s over-run with critically ill people. It takes six healthcare workers to attend to a ventilator patient. Why would we want this?
The Belief that Coronavirus is Over-hyped
The conservative pundits claim that we have already reached the peak of infections and that the cumulative deaths were exaggerated and that the media is only exploiting any hysteria to deny citizens basic rights.
These claims ignore facts and state public health statistics and a basic understanding of the disease and treatment progression. In many states, as of this moment in late April, the numbers of confirmed cases continue to rise. Projections by state public health officials is that deaths won’t peak until sometime in June. The reality of something peaking is that there are still large numbers on the other side of the peak. It does not mean an end point has been reached.
What these conservative pundits also don’t seem to understand is that COVID-19 is unlike any other illness that has impacted thousands of people at once. It can attack the lungs, but that is only a starting point. It can also destroy the kidneys, the liver, the heart and even the brain. People who have entered the hospital often become so critically ill, so fast, that doctors are left with few avenues of care. Because this is a novel virus, evidence-based medicine can be tossed out the window. Doctors in ER’s and ICU’s have been left to develop treatment protocols on the fly with therapeutic interventions that have only recently been mentioned in the medical literature or through social media.
This illness challenges everything doctors understand and have been taught. The best efforts, of very good doctors and nurses, are futile as patients suddenly die of massive organ failure. Yet, many conservative radio hosts and their listeners believe that this dangerous illness can be compared to the seasonal flu. The lack of understanding or empathy is disconcerting.
According to Dr. Jerome Kim, Director General of the International Vaccine Institute, headquartered in Seoul, Korea, the new coronavirus (SARS CoV2) is 10 times as contagious as the seasonal flu and 10 times more deadly. We still hear people regularly repeating their belief that the current coronavirus is no more deadly than the flu. They are out of touch and that is a dangerous position to hold since 80 percent of those who are infected are asymptomatic. There are people congregating in large groups, at protests, who ignore the 6-foot rule. That is why the virus will spread.
Another dangerous result of SARS CoV2 is that it has caused a 700% increase in stroke among people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. This has resulted from an overreaction of the immune system to the virus which has caused their bodies to increase blood clotting properties in their blood, which has caused an enormous spike in ischemic stroke among this population. Again, this fact is invisible to the people who are out of touch with the facts.
Conservatives Take Over the Role they Deplore
As someone who has identified as a conservative for many years, this unexplainable positioning by both conservative leaders, as well as rank and file conservatives, is disappointing and impossible to understand. Why would people, who have criticized those on the left for taking unsubstantiated positions on national cultural and political issues, do exactly what they bemoan as uninformed and ignorant of science?
While coronavirus appears to have peaked in many areas of the U.S. and in the U.K., this has only occurred because of shelter-in-place orders and social distance practices. To ignore this truth is ignorant. Every disease modeler created projections based on following a set of guidelines, that came from federal and state governments and a set of projections that predicted many more deaths and overwhelmed hospitals.
If nobody had changed their social behavior, we would be experiencing the much higher projections. It is ignorant to claim that the projections, and the threat, were somehow all exaggerated when most of the country exercised the government guidelines and took steps to contain community spread. If everyone had continued to go about their lives as normal, the worst projections would be unfolding before our eyes. A virus can only spread among a population when people are in close contact (i.e. within 6 feet or less) and droplets exhaled from an infected person are inhaled by someone else or surfaces touched by an infected person are subsequently touched by someone else.
Should we ignore all that we have accomplished as residents of the 50 united states and return to life as normal while there is widespread infection? Do we give up the gains we have made because people are going stir crazy or bored or are anxious to return to the bars and beauty salons?
Yes, the U.S. economy has entered a recession as a direct result of coronavirus. Yes, the 3.5% unemployment rate in February may blossom to 20%, the worst since the Great Depression. As someone who has written about economics for many years (hundreds of articles), I do not ignore the serious damage this pandemic has wreaked upon America.
But, the question has to be asked; if you are unemployed or dead, which is worse? As a temporary measure, states are making unemployment available to even people who were not previously eligible. The government is trying, in earnest, to get money to small businesses and to keep people on the payroll. This economic turmoil has upended the lives of millions of Americans, but the alternative is many more dead people, many more destroyed families and hospitals unable to keep up with the pace of severally ill patients.
Government Overreach?
Is this about government control, with elected officials dictating our freedoms and surpassing their Constitutional boundaries? If we knew that terrorists were planning to infiltrate the U.S. border and plan a mass attack on American citizens, how would we react? We would expect government to intervene, to mitigate the threat, and to keep us safe. We are now dealing with an unseen enemy that has already been able to do far more harm than the terrorists on 9/11 were capable of. Do we now accuse the government of overreach? Are the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans now more palatable because it is not a plane or a bomb that is killing them? Why would we expect the government to turn a blind eye to this threat because we engage in selective outrage? The end result is dead Americans no matter how you slice it. Why is this now a question of freedoms while we would insist on the terrorist plot being thwarted?
When we accuse people of living in an information bubble, do we ask them to step aside so we can take over that bubble? The facts that surround the current coronavirus pandemic are real and horrifying and unlike anything else in this century. Talk to any physician who works in an ER or ICU in New York City or northern Italy and they will explain the frustration and sheer panic of trying to save the lives of people who can’t be saved. They will remind anyone who will listen to do anything they can to prevent getting this dangerous virus. They will endorse any measure to prevent its spread. Why don’t many conservatives understand this?
I never thought I would see the day when I would be at ideological odds with others I normally agree with. I never thought I would see the day when respirators and rubber gloves were part of what a person needs to don before going shopping. I want the government to protect me. I want the government to protect the guy down the street and my family member in another state. If it means giving up a few freedoms for several months; that is a small price to pay.
Reality in a New York City Emergency Room