It took me this long to realize conservatives think they are being brave by demanding that we end mitigation of the pandemic.
Maybe I'm slow for not realizing this sooner, but the purpose and perspective of the social distancing and lockdowns is being interpreted completely differently on the "right".
80% of the country gets it - social distancing isn't about us bravely deciding that we are willing to risk getting infected, it is about us deciding not to risk infecting other people and causing their deaths.
More than half of those infected with COVID-19 are completely unaware that they are sick. They have no symptoms. So there is no way for us to know if we are infected and spreading the disease without getting tested.
And five months into this crisis in the US we can't get tested unless we show symptoms because of the continuing shortage. We could have been using the German-produced WHO test since early January. Instead, we are in mid-April and still can't get tested.
So half of those spreading the disease think they are uninfected.
Because we can't know if we are infected, whether or not we risk spreading the disease is a moral decision we each must make. Considering the risk, do we care if we accidentally or negligently kill other people or don't we? In particular, do we give a shit if we kill the elderly because of our selfishness?
Because this disease kills vulnerable people rapidly and with great suffering, it is unethical for us to risk spreading this disease if we can avoid it.
Because we cannot know if we are infected and contagious without getting tested, the only ethical choice is to behave as if we are infected, and protect those vulnerable to this disease BY NOT RISKING INFECTING AND KILLING THEM!
It's inconvenient and a sacrifice to live through these times of economic crisis, and for us each to make the moral choice to wait until testing is available so that we can know for sure that we are not spreading the disease and killing the vulnerable.
We can and will make that sacrifice so that our grandmothers don't die alone, gasping in hour after hour of agony.
Our inconvenience isn't even in the same universe as the sacrifice of health care providers who continue to treat critically ill and infectious patients despite the fact that every day we are betraying them by failing to provide them with the appropriate protective equipment. By betraying them so unforgivably we are forcing them to risk death every moment for week after week, month after month. Doctors and nurses, EMTs and support staff are dying of this disease every day.
When the second wave of this pandemic hits because political pressure from Trump's right wing base results in ending mitigation efforts too soon, we're going to discover that we have even fewer of those critical and essential health care professionals than we did the first time through.
They will be unavailable to save us all the second time not just because we are literally killing them, but also because once we are through the first wave of this, there are going to be many front line health care providers so psychologically wounded by this unrelenting hell in which they are fighting that they will decide that they can't face it again in a second wave that was completely avoidable if the rest of us just thought about the well being of people other than ourselves for even a moment.
Until ubiquitous rapid testing is available, we don't have the right to end mitigation efforts prematurely, because to do so would undoubtedly, indisputably be the direct cause of another even worse wave of infections, killing more elderly, killing more doctors and nurses.
We sure as hell don't have the right to ask the doctors and nurses suffering through this to go through it all again in a few months just because our government won't produce the tests we need to know if we are sick, because Trump thinks the numbers of infected will look bad for him after he gaslighted us about it for the first three months of the pandemic.
If we want to open up the economy, we need to force our government to do one simple thing: manufacture tests.
One goddamn thing, if Trump can't do anything else. One thing.
Just manufacture tests.
Until that one thing is accomplished, there aren't two sides to this. There isn't an argument.
Produce the tests and make them available, then start talking about the time table for relaxing mitigation efforts.
Otherwise shut the fuck up and stay home.
80% of the country gets it - social distancing isn't about us bravely deciding that we are willing to risk getting infected, it is about us deciding not to risk infecting other people and causing their deaths.
More than half of those infected with COVID-19 are completely unaware that they are sick. They have no symptoms. So there is no way for us to know if we are infected and spreading the disease without getting tested.
And five months into this crisis in the US we can't get tested unless we show symptoms because of the continuing shortage. We could have been using the German-produced WHO test since early January. Instead, we are in mid-April and still can't get tested.
So half of those spreading the disease think they are uninfected.
Because we can't know if we are infected, whether or not we risk spreading the disease is a moral decision we each must make. Considering the risk, do we care if we accidentally or negligently kill other people or don't we? In particular, do we give a shit if we kill the elderly because of our selfishness?
Because this disease kills vulnerable people rapidly and with great suffering, it is unethical for us to risk spreading this disease if we can avoid it.
Because we cannot know if we are infected and contagious without getting tested, the only ethical choice is to behave as if we are infected, and protect those vulnerable to this disease BY NOT RISKING INFECTING AND KILLING THEM!
It's inconvenient and a sacrifice to live through these times of economic crisis, and for us each to make the moral choice to wait until testing is available so that we can know for sure that we are not spreading the disease and killing the vulnerable.
We can and will make that sacrifice so that our grandmothers don't die alone, gasping in hour after hour of agony.
Our inconvenience isn't even in the same universe as the sacrifice of health care providers who continue to treat critically ill and infectious patients despite the fact that every day we are betraying them by failing to provide them with the appropriate protective equipment. By betraying them so unforgivably we are forcing them to risk death every moment for week after week, month after month. Doctors and nurses, EMTs and support staff are dying of this disease every day.
When the second wave of this pandemic hits because political pressure from Trump's right wing base results in ending mitigation efforts too soon, we're going to discover that we have even fewer of those critical and essential health care professionals than we did the first time through.
They will be unavailable to save us all the second time not just because we are literally killing them, but also because once we are through the first wave of this, there are going to be many front line health care providers so psychologically wounded by this unrelenting hell in which they are fighting that they will decide that they can't face it again in a second wave that was completely avoidable if the rest of us just thought about the well being of people other than ourselves for even a moment.
Until ubiquitous rapid testing is available, we don't have the right to end mitigation efforts prematurely, because to do so would undoubtedly, indisputably be the direct cause of another even worse wave of infections, killing more elderly, killing more doctors and nurses.
We sure as hell don't have the right to ask the doctors and nurses suffering through this to go through it all again in a few months just because our government won't produce the tests we need to know if we are sick, because Trump thinks the numbers of infected will look bad for him after he gaslighted us about it for the first three months of the pandemic.
If we want to open up the economy, we need to force our government to do one simple thing: manufacture tests.
One goddamn thing, if Trump can't do anything else. One thing.
Just manufacture tests.
Until that one thing is accomplished, there aren't two sides to this. There isn't an argument.
Produce the tests and make them available, then start talking about the time table for relaxing mitigation efforts.
Otherwise shut the fuck up and stay home.
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