While the country and the media are shifting attention to the economic impact of the coronavirus known as COVID-19, with a focus on reopening businesses, the other numbers are more human, more devastatingly grievous. This country has not begun to grieve the loss of human life, let alone honor those whom we have lost.
Further, this weekend we hear that murdering hornets that attack and kill honey bee hives have arrived on the west coast from Asia. It’s enough to make one proclaim, “one crisis at a time.”
The U.S. passed a grim milestone last week; we are closing in on 1.2 million cases of COVID–19 in the U.S. and more than 68,000 dead (which is considered to be undercounted by 15-20,000 deaths). That is more dead than U.S. casualties in 19 years of the Vietnam War. On Feb. 29 the U.S. had its first COVID-19 death. We have gone from 1 to 68,000 in only 66 days. For the mathematically-inclined, this is an astronomical increase.
Colorado is one of the nearly two-thirds of states that announced reopening plans following the country’s shift from ‘stay-at-home’ orders to versions of ‘safer-at-home.’ While some states have made at least a pretense of reopening with some semblance of a plan to maintain social distancing, others such as Georgia, simply threw open their doors to whatever is to come.
Not one of those states has met the national guideline of 14 days of decreasing COVID- 19 cases. Not one. They don’t seem to care. Or if they do, they have been cowered by vocal leaders of the business community that appear bent on trying to make us believe that capitalism matters more than human lives.
According to President Donald Trump’s own words, the country needs 5 million tests a day to effectively be able to screen for the corornavirus known as COVID-19. He assures us the country is there. It is not. It is nowhere close.
Many states are far short of Covid-19 testing levels needed for safe reopening, new analysis shows
In Colorado, where the shift from ‘stay-at-home’ to ‘safer-at-home’ appeared to catch counties by surprise, it has sparked a free-for-all of county government response. Responses range from “no thanks, we’re staying shut down until May 8” (Denver, Jefferson, and Arapahoe counties) to demands in tourism counties as to why they aren’t opening faster. Some, such as Fremont and Douglas counties, simply threw open the business doors, while Weld county defied the state, opened early, and announced that its approach was a ‘safer-for-business’ approach.
Chaffee County announced a phased timeline, attempting to stem the flood of second homeowners and the deluge of tourists to this tourist-centric economy. The plan requires everyone in the county to wear a mask and practice social distancing. The timeline reopened retail businesses on May 1, calls for second homeowners to be able to return –and reopens restaurants and bars with proper social distancing — May 16, and reopens lodging and tourism on June 1.
Almost immediately a segment of the county’s small businesses (estimated by the Chaffee County Economic Development Corporation to number 1,500) reacted, many indicating they want to open sooner. “It was a spirited conversation,” said Elevation CEO Carlin Walsh, speaking about an April 29 conversation with the county’s restaurant owners.
“Unless you can test people – anyone — you have no idea who might be spreading the disease among your population, restaurant employees, your customers …” said Neera Tandem, CEO of the Center for American Progress.
This past weekend, it was readily evident that the county’s reopening rules are being ignored, as county roads were filled with cars, many with out-of-state plates. Traffic up roads such as CR 162 to St.Elmo looked like a 4th of July weekend.
Visits to stores revealed aisles with some 70 percent or more people not wearing masks, and social distancing being loosely applied. There were gatherings in the parking lot of the Buena Vista City Market. The parks and public areas of Salida were clearly filled with out-of-county visitors, neither masked nor social distancing.
The single-minded focus on the economic devastation of COVID-19 appears to discount the human impact of what we have lost. As devastating as the economic impact is (and Ark Valley Voice shares that business impact) the numbers that matter more are the human statistics.
Not to grieve those lost is to discount their value to this world. Those of us who have lost loved ones (including me) haven’t been able to even attend funerals. Our loved ones are just – gone.
We fail to grieve at our own peril. There has been no national day of mourning for the more than 68,000 souls lost. Why not?
There is no Colorado Day of Mourning for the 842 residents who have died so far. Why not?
To say we’re waiting to grieve until this is over is wrong. Did we wait to grieve our Vietnam War losses until it was over? We no more knew when that war would end, than we know when this will end. No, we mourned our losses and honored our dead as a process. Those of us who have lost those we love need at least that before you ask us to enter a tourism-centered business to buy saltwater taffy.
Chaffee County Public Health workers hand out masks at the Touber Building Thursday afternoon. 302 were given out in a short time. Courtesy photo.
Second, COVID-19 is not gone, nor is it sleeping. It is waiting to make a comeback if we don’t follow the Chaffee County Public Health orders. Because we Coloradan’s did such a good job of social distancing and staying at home, we’ve gotten this far. But with crowds surging at trailheads, and out-of-county people swarming in, what happens next could put us all at risk.
“You don’t wear a mask to protect you – you wear a mask to protect me, and every other person. I wear a mask to protect you …You could kill someone because you didn’t want to wear a mask,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo this morning.
As Chaffee Chair of the Board of County Commissioners, Greg Felt has reminded us, social distancing and wearing masks is part of the four-part COVID-19 containment strategy recommended by top epidemiologists. The CDC working document out this morning says based on the way that the states are reopening, there could be as many as 3,000 deaths a day in the U.S. by June 1.
“There is a certainty that this virus will begin to spread again,” say experts at Johns Hopkins University, addressing the alarming way that states are reopening business. The university has been the primary statistical tracker of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Perhaps the fundamental question isn’t ‘Are livelihoods more important than our lives?’ But it is this; “Are each of us willing to show respect for others ‘lives’ by wearing a mask and social distancing?”
Personally, I don’t want to go into any store that isn’t enforcing the face mask rule. My business is as good as the business of those people breaking the rules and right now because I live here, it should mean more. So why aren’t all businesses enforcing this order? Do they need to be reminded that their new certificate to operate could be at risk? Do businesses not understand that if cases begin to rise – we’ll lose the summer tourism season?
Those of us within this community who have already lost people dear to us are asking; what will business, and this county, do? Will our leaders stand firm, or cave to the social pressure before we are ready?
Featured image: Candlelight, by Mike Labrum, unsplash.
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