Public Service Announcement

This is from Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health. You can read the whole post here.

In other words, if most Americans pulled together to do the right thing and wore a mask in public [95 percent, from the previous paragraph], this simple, selfless act would save more than 130,000 lives in the next few months alone. If mask-wearers increased to just 85 percent, the model predicts it would save about 96,000 lives across the country.

What’s important here aren’t the precise numbers. It’s the realization that, under any scenario, this pandemic is far from over, and, together, we have it within our power to shape what happens next. If more people make the decision to wear masks in public today, it could help to delay—or possibly even prevent—the need for future shutdowns. As such, the widespread use of face coverings has the potential to protect lives while also minimizing further damage to the economy and American livelihoods. It’s a point that NIH’s Anthony Fauci and colleagues presented quite well in a recent commentary in JAMA.

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In my words: If you love your neighbor, you will keep social distance, wear a mask, and wash your hands. What is so difficult about that? It's time to grow up and realize the world isn't about you and what your so-called rights. Especially as a Christian, you are called to love your neighbor.

If you can't even put on a mask, that doesn't speak well of your commitment to Jesus. Just an
</idle musing>

Reap the whirlwind, or how to screw up public health

From the Atlantic, which has some really good coverage of the pandemic (which we should start calling "The Trump Virus" because of his mishandling of it):

The U.S. frittered away that chance [to control the virus]. Through social distancing, the American public bought the country valuable time at substantial personal cost. The Trump administration should have used that time to roll out a coordinated plan to ramp up America’s ability to test and trace infected people. It didn’t. Instead, to the immense frustration of public-health advisers, leaders rushed to reopen while most states were still woefully unprepared.

When Arizona Governor Doug Ducey began reviving businesses in early May, the intensive-care unit of Popescu’s hospital was still full of COVID-19 patients. “Within our public-health bubble, we were getting nervous, but then you walked outside and it was like Pleasantville,” she said. “People thought we had conquered it, and now it feels like we’re drowning.”

What can I say? Pride comes before a fall. The US is too proud to be sensible, and now we're reaping the whirlwind. It's only going to get worse because people won't sacrifice a little for others.