The Corona virus has taken over 120,000 American lives since it began its tornadic viral defoliation of senior citizens and others with preexisting conditions in the Spring of 2020. The virus caught Americans unprepared. Everything has changed. The impact of the virus has been like a tsunami wave around the world whose point of origin is the giant industrial city of Wuhan, China. Only now are countries like Brazil being decimated and will soon top the United States in total cases and deaths. Countries who went into immediate lockdown were less effected like Norway, New Zealand, and Canada. The United States waited too long and the virus took hold. 

States here in North America, like Georgia, Arizona, and California, who grew weary of the economic impact of the virus and put forth ambitious reopening plans are now seeing record numbers of cases for the first time. The rate of infection is now being felt among younger citizens without pre-existing infirmity. 

Concerns about negative secondary outcomes of COVID-19 prevention efforts should not be taken to imply that these public health actions should not be taken,” wrote the CDC in one of its briefing statements. Secondary outcomes include the broad range of emotional responses to the virus including depression from loss of loved ones, sudden unemployment, increasing substance abuse, threat of homelessness, anger and existential anxiety from loss of control and loss of purpose in life. “However, implementation of supports should include a comprehensive approach that considers multiple U.S. public health priorities, including suicide prevention.” 

The Psychological toll of pandemic is beginning to show after festering for 3 months. The loss of employment, fear of foreclosure, food shortages, price gouging, addiction, and family conflict each increase the bonifide stress associated with the disease and its impact on the human family. People are becoming rattled. The President understands this and wants to exploit the opportunity by holding a campaign event. Trump brushed off concerns about the virus ahead of his highly anticipated rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, because the number of cases there “is very miniscule”, despite the state’s surging infection of according to a report in the Boston Globe.  Instead, the rally was miniscule and embarrassed the President. 

Top physician and epidemiologist, Anthony Faucci has stated that given the unprecedented and unpredictable nature of Covid-19 that lessening of current social distancing protocols, the use of masks in public, and contact tracing are the best hope for keeping the number of new infections trending downward and to lessen the number of people who die from Covid-19. States who reopen for business without these same precautions are at risk for spikes in cases and more death. Since mid May we have heard from Dr. Faucci less and less as the White House has tried to imply that these concerns are unwarranted and there is “very little of the virus left”. 

President Trump, himself something of a germophobe, has put the needs of the campaign before public health and safety for the sake of his raucous and fervent base. In doing so, he will create a campaign spike that will be measured by new cases and deaths in the next 3-6 weeks time. That is on him and the courts who failed to put limits on the event or cancel it all together in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday June 20. Since February, the president has not taken the pandemic with the kind of leadership that demonstrates his understanding of the virus and respect for those who have succumbed to the disease. 

Meanwhile states like Georgia, Texas, California, and Florida are having thousands of new cases because governor’s of those states have failed to heed the warnings of Dr. Faucci and others. The sudden conflagration of new cases is not the second wave that we have been warned about. The jump in cases correlates with opening businesses without any adherence to protocols. See Tulsa, OK. 

In Florida, the average age of new cases who are hospitalized has dropped to 37-years old. “Those thousands of new cases also signal that, in a week or two, some portion of those people will show up in the hospital, and, about a week after that, a number of them will be dead, even as clinicians have learned more about treating severe Covid-19” said the Boston Globe. For his part, albeit in a greatly reduced capacity, Dr Faucci predicts that a tidal wave of infections is coming unless we do what most medical experts agree starts with respect for social distance recommendations, sanitary hand hygiene, and mandatory quarantine for those who test positive for the virus or are feeling unwell.  

We all know this by now, and it is hard to swallow unless you are among those people who claim to have super immune functioning and refuse orders to wear a mask in public?  Sadly, many will become infected and go on to infect others, unwittingly, all the while they feel nothing and are emboldened by the President who insists the risk of getting the virus at a campaign event is miniscule. Perhaps some readers of this post or others like it do not believe the numbers and chalk it up to fake news.

The emotional impact of the virus has yet to reach its peak. But the racial unrest may be one indication that many are becoming unhinged including a small number of law enforcement officers who lack empathy and understanding of the human effects of stress on unconscious bias and veiled bigotry.  Faucci is getting on the virus. Let us leave the prognosticating to the scientists who are watching the numbers and tracking those who are carrying the virus without symptoms, and may not know it yet.