What are the most pressing issues we should be debating in reaction to Covid-19, social distancing, and the state of healthcare in the US?

A month ago, I was shopping for my trip to the Bahamas that I’m currently supposed to be on. I was so happy with life. My GPA is a 3.8, I’ve met so many new friends, and the weather was just warming up in Nola and I felt on top of the world. All of this changed in an instant. COVID-19 has drastically changed our lives in just a few short weeks. “Stop the spread,” and “flatten the curve,” are phrases I’ve never been so familiar with in my life. Every day many more cases and deaths are reported. I was supposed to leave for my trip this week; however, the virus is so out of control, we had to cancel our trip. We aren’t alone as other people are doing the same all over the globe. Aside from cancelling schools and vacations, a lot of more serious problems are coming to light every day. Some of the more pressing issues include the following:

IN RELATION TO THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

We do not have a good enough system in place to handle a pandemic. Italy is falling a part as I type this. They’ve maxed out their hospital beds and are deciding who gets to live or die as soon as they come through the doors. They have a very low supply of ventilators. The United States is likely to be where Italy is in 6-7 days now. We are being told now to expect the hospitals being at max capacity. If you look at the graph I’ve included below, you can see the US cases becoming higher and higher than Italy’s was at that point in time. I hope that I am still alive and well when I make my blog post next week, because it is a possibility that people I know might not be.

IN RELATION TO SOCIAL DISTANCING:

One thing has been shown over and over again since this pandemic began: People are idiots! Have you logged into your Facebook lately ? NO ONE IS TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY. Some popular, but false, beliefs involve COVID-19 being a hoax, second-coming of Christ, famous people being arrested in secret (??? I had to delete that person because I just couldn’t even deal with it. A girl from school actually has coronavirus and you’re going to tell me that Tom Hanks is a predator? Bye.)

With people not taking social distancing seriously, the spread of this virus is continuing rapidly. They’ll say, “I feel fine,” but carry the virus and spread it until they actually get sick and then stay home. My dad lives in Tampa, Florida, and says they beaches are now closed due to how crowded and full of spring-breakers they were after the stay-at-home announcements were made.

With this mix of people refusing to socially distancing and our health care system being completely unprepared, we’re doomed. Well, not entirely . If you’ve listened to the warnings and have stayed home, washing your hands often, and keeping away from others you could be in luck. Getting COVID-19 is not a death sentence for most, but is for some. Once our hospitals are maxed out, more will die. We all need to be responsible for ourselves, and not feed into the panic media loves to bomb us with.

Stay safe, stay home, and for the love of God, WASH YOUR HANDS.