Social distancing, sheltering in place, and lockdowns are unprecedented and painful for everyone.
The unemployed are harmed most, out of work and unable to freely seek new sources of income needed for essentials to life and welfare.
It’s unclear how long current crisis conditions may last or how many people will be harmed by COVID-19.
Older people with pre-existing conditions and weakened immune systems from age and overall poor health affected further by a cocktail of prescription drugs with harmful side effects are most vulnerable.
When prescribed and used only as needed, drugs are necessary. Time and again they’re overused, risking more harm than good.
Some drugs should never be taken in combination with others. Drug overdoses together with others are a leading cause of death. Opioids are especially dangerous. Yet they’re widely prescribed and overused.
According to Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute, around two-thirds of Americans use prescription drugs.
Nearly everyone with diabetes uses them and around 90% of people with arthritis.
Three-fourths of Americans aged-50 or older use them, over 90% of the US population over age-80.
The average number of prescription drugs used in the US increases with age.
Individuals with one or more chronic illnesses, especially if older, are most vulnerable to become a COVID-19 fatality.
If younger otherwise healthy individuals are infected with the virus, their full recovery prospects are overwhelmingly positive.
Older individuals infected by the virus with serious pre-existing conditions like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and/or respiratory issues who perished may have succumbed because of one or more of these issues, not COVID-19.
Yet its rapid spread in the US and elsewhere is a great cause for concern. Extra precautions should be taken to be safe and not sorry.
Trump’s top priorities are getting reelected and serving privileged interests in the country exclusively, no matter the cost to human health and welfare.
According to the Washington Post and other media, Trump aims to reopen most of the economy by May 1, “according to (unnamed) people familiar with the discussions,” WaPo noted.
On Thursday, Trump said “(h)opefully, we’re going to be opening up — you could call it opening — very, very, very, very soon, I hope.”
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin told CNBC the same thing.
Most states are in lockdown. Governors may be reluctant to ease strict measures until comfortable that outbreaks ceased or at least are overwhelmingly under control.
Reopening the economy too soon would risk a new wave of infections, deaths, and public angst.
As long as most people are fearful of contagion, they’ll likely be reluctant to resume normal activities even if eager to go back to work.
A second White House task force is being formed to decide on how the economy will be reopened.
A former unnamed Trump regime official criticized “too many cooks in the (White House) kitchen” without clear leadership and direction in dealing with the health and economic crisis.
Trump admitted that it’s up to state officials to decide when the coast is clear in their parts of the country to begin resuming normal activities.
Governor Cuomo and health officials in hard-hit New York City and state may be reluctant to jump the gun too soon.
“We’ve underestimated the virus from the beginning,” Cuomo said. NY is in lockdown until April 29. Easing or lifting it entirely will depend on whether outbreaks are contained.
This week, updated COVID-19 CDC guidelines were issued for “critical infrastructure” employees — focusing on precautionary measures over current lockdown restrictions “to ensure continuity of essential functions.”
They call for continuation of social distancing, mask wearing, temperature checks, along with cleaning and disinfecting equipment, workplaces and common areas regularly.
Anyone feeling ill should be sent home immediately. Anyone in close contact with an ill employee should be considered exposed and quarantined.
Reopening the economy too soon is high-risk. COVID-19 is highly contagious.
Social distancing and other restrictions appear to be flattening the outbreak curve in various states which is good news.
Boston’s Mass General Emergency Medicine Department chair Dr. Paul Biddinger cautioned that evidence of a flattened peak doesn’t mean that crisis is ending.
“There are many, many more weeks of hard work ahead of us,” he stressed.
According to US News & World Report’s ranking of America’s best hospitals, Boston’s Mass General is second best in the nation after Rochester, MN’s Mayo Clinic.
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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
