After about 3 months of quarantine and social distancing, people are out and about for summer 2020. Who wouldn't be? We've paid the price, and now that it's supposedly over, we can have fun right?
Wrong. And you can see this in the numbers. COVID-19 numbers are steadily rising in numerous states, including Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Florida. Which isn't surprising, since in any public area, few people wear masks and/or social distance; they've essentially gone back to normal entirely despite the current increase in cases.
But you can't blame them. Because the only two options we have now are going back to normal and risk getting the disease, or initiating a second lockdown and letting the economy tank.
You're probably thinking: How did we get ourselves here? It all started in March 2020, when at the first presidential conference regarding the novel coronavirus, after a scattering of cases already occurred, President Donald Trump merely suggested social distancing guidelines and did not issue an executive order shutting down the nation. Which, you might think was fine, since schools were shutting down and people were quarantining anyway.
But since the president wasn't openly worried about the virus, many states weren't as well. And that meant the people in those states also didn't worry too much about the virus. Don't get me wrong, many states like California and New York did in fact issue a statewide lockdown, in the absence of a national one. But there were in fact people protesting the entire thing, claiming that it was a violation of their constitutional right. In the middle of a global pandemic, they wanted people to be out and about and risking the spread of this disease.
So even during this 3 month period from March to May, while many were following guidelines and staying at home, others didn't. Simply because they didn't have to. And so the case numbers continued to rise.
This lack of policy, specifically national policy on protecting people from the disease was the problem. If everyone was ordered to stay at home and maintain physical distance, then those who were sick would eventually recover, and we could have waited it out. However, with people still spreading the infection during a time of supposed quarantine, the risk for getting COVID-19 only increased.
Which is why we're seeing that we do today. And we only have two options: our lives or the economy.
But these options are less dramatic than I make them out to be. Because although many people are contracting COVID-19, they are not dying from it; that is, its mortality rate is much lower than its morbidity rate. So, people may opt to risk contracting it, suffering through it, and gaining immunity. Which wouldn't be so bad, it's like the flu right?
Wrong again. A recent preliminary study found that the number of antibodies we have after getting COVID-19 decreases over time, meaning that we are indeed susceptible to getting it multiple times. And since it's a new disease, it spreads so much faster than any other similar virus, like the flu.
But then again, if we do opt for a second lockdown, (with people actually required to follow of course), the economy doesn't stand a chance. Which is actually the government's fault too.
You see, when people were getting unemployment benefits, every state already has a set amount to give each person, based on the living cost and average income of that state. For example, Georgia's is $365, while the amount in New York is $504. However, in a moment of genius, the federal government decided to help out too. Only instead of rationing their budget in accordance with varying living cost in each state, they awarded a blank check. Of $600, regardless of where you lived. So in Georgia, you received $965 a week, which is way more than anyone needs to live a decent lifestyle.
So eventually, people were earning more than even their jobs, and didn't want to go back to work. Also, the federal and state government began to run out of money. So, they essentially have to bring people back into work, because they have little money left for unemployment.
Which actually wouldn't have been a problem if people had quarantined fully, and the epidemic was gone by now. But people didn't and it's not, which means we have a difficult decision to make ahead.
And we can only hope for the best. Though I don't really know what that is.