With COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. topping the 120,000 mark this weekend and some 21 states seeing an uptick in new cases (and worse, in hospitalizations, a number that can’t be dismissed as the product of more widespread testing), it would seem almost too incredible to believe that Americans think the pandemic is over. Or even no longer a threat.
That’s not what we know from the experience of the past or what public health experts are telling us. Yet the signs of such a response, of a collective “well, it’s time to move on,” are unmistakable.
It’s in Vice President Mike Pence’s claim last week that there isn’t a “second wave” which is correct only in that the first wave isn’t finished yet. It’s in the behavior of thousands who thought it a swell idea to crowd the BOK Center for a Donald Trump campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday even as local health officials warned against it. And it’s in the growing number of Americans who refuse to wear a mask or other facial covering confusing “personal freedom” with “irresponsible, self-destructive behavior.”
There are any number of reasons behind this abundance of wishful thinking. Americans, and probably a lot of other folks around the world, are growing tired of social distancing, shutdowns, the accompanying economic recession and all the rest.
President Donald Trump, ever focused on self-interest and reelection, is not just rooting for recovery, he’s happily misrepresenting reality in an off-the-charts level of denial or perhaps a let-them-eat-cake attitude toward the masses. And, of course, the overall trends have been moving in a favorable direction including in Maryland where last week marked the third straight of declining number of hospitalizations. Mix in a bit of unmasked envy among the Fox News crowd as they whine about the lack of social distancing among certain Black Lives Matter protesters. Not to mention how so many coronavirus-related restrictions have been lifted successfully by states. Perhaps the moment when people became sick of it all was inevitable.
So here’s a reality check. It isn’t over. And that’s not Democrats-wanting-President-Trump-to-fail talking. It’s not fearmongering in the “mainstream media,” however that’s defined these days. It’s experience and medical expertise.
Send comments to [email protected].
