2 The RAPS Sheet Summer 2020 CO-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE The summer of COVID-19: how are we doing? I HAVE BEEN WAY too focused on the novel coronaviruspandemic for the last few months. Cases, hospitalizations, deaths counts, hot spots, behavior guidelines for staying healthy, etc., are getting too much of my attention for my own mental health. I do not want to get COVID-19; I want to stay healthy for my family’s sake. How is Oregon holding up? Where are new cases showing up? How safe are activities which used to be routine before April 2020? We watched New York and its neighboring states go through dark times as hospitals, ICU beds, and ventilators seemed as if they would not be available to treat all COVID19 patients in April and May. Shutting down all but essential businesses while ordering folks to mostly stay home worked to “flatten the curve.” State governments joined an international competition to acquire testing capability. The new case counts declined. These early states were able to reopen their economies very gradually. They could test sufficiently to identify new cases, quarantine the sick, and do contact tracing to stop further spread of the virus. Graphs of cases in New York showed a steep rise, followed by a leveling, and weeks into the pandemic a decline to very few new cases. Most European countries showed similar graphs for COVID-19 cases: flat in the beginning with few cases, then sharp increases, eventually mitigation steps, then a decline to low levels. Central governments in some other nations (e.g., South Korea, Japan, New Zealand) took quick action to shut down spread of the coronavirus (and never did experience the sharp spike in cases). Many of our states (e.g., Florida, Texas, Arizona) currently show a different graph of COVID-19 cases: initially low case counts, then a spike, then level case counts for a while, and, in recent weeks, steep spikes in cases. This pattern is in sharp contrast to what we see in most countries. Why does the United States have so many places with community spread and coronavirus out of control? At least part of the answer is: too many folks in our country are not wearing masks. “To mask or not to mask?” seems to be a question with an obvious answer. Mask-wearing to protect one’s fellow citizens is the norm in some cultures. Japan, for example, is a country which seems to mask up as a reflexive action. Japan has had good control of coronavirus. Our citizens never developed the norm: wear a mask to protect others. Our country has such poor control of coronavirus that Europe will not let us travel to their countries. A couple of days ago I heard the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that four to six weeks of mask wearing (by all of us, not just some of us) would stop the current steep increase in new cases (over 70,000 per day now). I just do not see that message reaching a big enough set of people who believe it is what should happen. Somehow we need “young people” and “I have a right to not wear a mask people” on board with wearing masks “to protect grandma.” I am sad and angry that our country has done such a poor job controlling COVID-19. Thank you all for letting me vent my feelings. I miss RAPS gatherings. I miss dining in restaurants. I miss travel. My daughter is rightly risk adverse, but she has recently allowed my wife, Eileen, and me into her “family bubble,” so we are having contact with our two grandchildren. That helps a little. I hope you are staying safe and virus free. Remember your mask. —Steve Brennan ‘To mask or not to mask?’ seems to be a question with an obvious answer . . . We need ‘young people’ and ‘I have a right to not wear a mask people’ on board with wearing masks ‘to protect grandma.’
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