I will admit that I have mixed feelings about the current pandemic and the related shutdown of our businesses, schools and churches. It concerns me to see our people give up all that is good and beneficial in our country in order to shelter (or hide) in place at home.
While I'm all for taking precautions to prevent the spread of covid-19 and trying to save lives, I wonder if we've taken the right approach.
With the shutdown, we may have slowed the spread of disease, but at what cost? We have destroyed our economy, taken away the gainful employment of millions, forced businesses and individuals into bankruptcy, moved our federal government a big step closer to insolvency, hindered education and religious instruction, limited healthcare procedures, trampled on the Bill of Rights, and the list goes on and on. And what will this cost in terms of ruined lives, broken families, child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, illness, and, yes, even deaths?
And, if we are over the peak of this round of covid-19, will we have a resurgence of the disease later this year or next? And could it be even worse because of weakened immune systems caused by isolating ourselves from contact with all the germs our bodies fight off on a regular basis to keep our immune systems strong and healthy?
Yes, some parts of our covid-19 response are a bit humorous, especially when I'm viewing them with my wife, who teaches medical students about infection control and the proper use of personal protective equipment. She points out to me those who are wearing their masks inside out or upside down and explains why the well-meaning practices of many to protect against the spread of disease are often counterproductive -- but, hey, if it makes people feel good, it may have some psychological benefits. Who knows?
Is the coronavirus pandemic worse than things faced by our parents and grandparents in the past?
I didn't have to go back to the plagues of medieval Europe. I saw an example circulated on the internet and did a fact check on the numbers and made a few slight corrections with the best numbers I could find (surprisingly the social media post was pretty accurate).
Imagine you were born in the year 1900. What kind of life challenges would you have faced?
By the time you had barely become a teenager, at 14 years of age, WWI (which lasted four years) had broken out and an estimated 22 million people died as a direct result of the war (9 million combatant deaths and 13 million civilian deaths).
Then, when you turned 18, the Spanish flu (with outbreaks beginning in the spring of 1918 and coming to a close in the summer of 1919) "infected 500 million people -- about a third of the world's population -- with an estimated death toll somewhere between 17 and 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history."
The second wave of the pandemic in the U.S., in the fall of 1918, was especially deadly. People wore masks then, too, and practiced social distancing. I even saw photos of baseball players wearing facemasks while engaged in a ballgame.
Then, before you reached 30, the stock market crash occurred and the Great Depression began (running from 1929 through the late 1930s). Unemployment rates in the U.S. reached as high as 23% and, in some countries, 33% of the workforce was unemployed. The worldwide gross domestic product fell by about 15%, causing shortages of food and other necessities. Times were worse than we have ever seen today.
At the age of 39, WWII broke out (a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945 and the deadliest conflict in human history). The U.S. entered the war in December of 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Some 70 to 85 million fatalities are directly attributed to the war.
In addition to Spanish flu deaths during the 20th century, smallpox was still around and responsible for an estimated 300 to 500 million deaths. In the early 1950s, approximately 50 million cases of smallpox still occurred annually around the world. The disease often wiped out entire families and devastated communities.
And there were the regional polio epidemics in the U.S. which appeared each summer from 1916 onward, with the greatest epidemics occurring in the 1940s and 1950s, causing many to suffer paralysis or death.
At the age of 50, the Korean War broke out, with full-scale fighting continuing for three years, resulting in another 3 million deaths.
Just two years after a ceasefire in Korea, fighting broke out in Vietnam and continued for 20 years, again resulting in an estimated 3 million or more war deaths, including again thousands of U.S. troops.
If you traveled by automobile, we could talk about annual traffic fatalities. Today, they still average about 40,000 in the U.S. and, according to the World Health Organization, approximately 1.25 million were killed in traffic accidents worldwide in 2013.
We can add to that the annual deaths from influenza -- an ongoing threat. The World Health Organization estimates that influenza causes 5 million severe illnesses each year and kills up to 650,000 people annually.
The CDC actually recommends some of the same protective measures for the flu as for the coronavirus but not many seem to exercise the same amount of caution.
In comparison, as of Monday, approximately 350,000 people worldwide have died from the coronavirus and approximately 5.5 million cases have been confirmed. The numbers may climb but haven't yet reached those of a bad flu year.
So, yes, the coronavirus is dangerous and can be deadly. But, are we in greater danger than the generations before us? I don't think so.
Perhaps it's time we realize that life is full of pandemics of one sort or another and don our masks the right way and get back to work, school, church and life itself!
Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 05/27/2020