I keep up with some of the COVID-19 news. I try to, anyway, and I have been stocking up and getting my mind around the possibility of another shutdown and what it could mean for me if/when it happens (being unemployed).
I have kept my eyes away from the numbers for a little while now, just to spare myself the shock and horror. But…over six million infected in the US?! When we started phasing out of the nationwide shutdown, the number was not 2 million. What happened? How does anyone in power look at those numbers and think they have anything under control?
I am stunned and a little disappointed. The US is a world power, a First World country, with top-rated hospitals and doctors, a decent health care plan, and some of the finest minds in the world in all areas of government, business, health, and safety. We could have avoided this.
Couldn’t we?
Am I wrong? Are we wrong, the people that think this coronavirus could have be contained, that a lengthier shutdown could have been more effective, that a longer shutdown would not have destroyed the country, that the number of infected and dead would be much lower, MUCH lower, if the US government had responded to it correctly and early?
How weak is the economy? Is it close to collapse? it this, six million infected, the only way for us to save it?
The number of infected and dead are rising. The numbers at my job are increasing, too. So are the rumors. So is the paranoia and extreme behavior. As is the fear that another shutdown is inevitable and we will be laid off if it happens before November.
I am holding on to some faint belief (is it hope?) that there won’t be another shutdown, that we don’t cross 10, then 15, then 20 million infected, that we never reach a million dead in the US, that I don’t lose my job, and have to reenter the job market during a depression. Above all, I am hoping I don’t become infected. But, the higher the number of people who are currently infected, the greater the chance that I will be, too.
Get prepared. Stay safe.
Mark Earnest Johnson 