Xoutpost.com - View Single Post - Texas and Mississippi to lift coronavirus restrictions

AVB-AMG · #2 03-03-2021, 11:25 PM

Maruzo:

I agree with your bewilderment on the part of the Governors of both Texas and Mississippi, with Florida supposedly not far behind, with regard to prematurely either reducing or rescinding the health safety protocols that we know work. We all have severe cases of cabin fever and desperately want to resume some semblance of a normal life, but we need to be smart and sensible about how we stage and phase that return and not attempt to do it all at once or at an accelerated pace.

I understand and appreciate the argument from both sides, of the damage, both physically and economically, caused by the COVID-19 virus pandemic and the approaches used over the past year to attempt to control it. But, like you, I would have thought that by now we would have learned what works and what does not, along with the consequences. Wearing appropriately fitting and manufactured face masks really do help prevent the passage, in both directions, of aerosol particles and droplets. At this point, I honestly believe that wearing a face mask when in public around large groups of people, whether inside or outside, is not a political statement, but and IQ test…. Mississippi and Texas state governments have failed this test.

I had assumed, wrongly, that as a nation that we had moved on past the bitter politically polarized, binary argument about this virus and how it affects lives versus livelihoods. Now that the pharmaceutical industry is gearing up to increase the production and distribution of the various COVID vaccines and more Americans are vaccinated, we will see a greatly reduced number of infections and the resulting harm this virus causes. But alas, being vaccinated may induce a false sense of confidence and level of immunity that may or may not exist, along with not really knowing how long those antibodies will last in our body providing protection against the virus.

Yet, I believe that we have to avoid minimizing the degree to which mass unemployment, poverty, food insecurity and mental despair will devastate people if the economy remains virtually shut down. We know that, for those small businesses that have not yet gone out of business, that they must be allowed to reopen in order to survive. We know the negative aspects of distance learning for elementary, middle and high school students and the stressful toll it is taking on them and their parents, especially their mothers. FYI, while I am not yet comfortable dining inside with many other people who I do not know, that decision should be a choice left up to each person, not forcing the restaurant to remain closed for indoor dining.

At the same time, we can’t just submit to protesters demanding their state governors open everything back up indiscriminately and/or prematurely, without data or a comprehensive health strategy. We also know from the health experts that we need to continue the universal health care precautions and protocols, if we are to make any headway on returning to a functioning economy and pre-COVID way of life. As for the economy, history tells us that when mitigation measures are lifted too soon and then have to be re-imposed, then economies take much longer to improve.

As far as the so-call “herd immunity” is concerned I am still reading and educating myself more about that concept and still need to learn more. As I understand it, the term "herd immunity" presupposes that a person probably gains immunity after recovering from Covid-19. Yet, that is not an absolute given. The WHO is cautioning that we don't have enough evidence to assume immunity exists. Herd immunity, which kicks in after about 60-70% of the population is exposed to and recovers from the virus or has been vaccinated.

Also, if herd immunity will in fact occur, the assumption that once we can get to that point our battle with the COVID-19 virus pandemic will be over, is probably wishful thinking. We are now seeing multiple mutations of the
COVID-19 virus that are reportedly more contagious and that attack different parts of the body, in addition to the lungs. We are seeing strange increases in strokes in younger people due to the Coronavirus, and patients under 60 now constitute about a third of hospitalizations, many of whom are ill with life-threatening illness. Even if fatality rates are lower in the younger, there is substantial morbidity associated with this disease, including damage to lungs, senses, kidneys, and the nervous systems, among other problems associated with having it. My guess is that, for those of us who want it, we will most likely be getting annual COVID vaccinations that are formulated to address whatever the evolving mutations to virus are most prevalent at that time, similar to what we now do with annual influenza vaccinations.

My guess is that most of us will be wearing face masks through the fall of 2021, possibly longer.

AVB-AMG

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