Thread by @kurteichenwald

A virus doesnt care what you want. A virus doesn't care what's convenient.

People want schools open. People want the economy open. It would be convenient. NONE of that can be done if we dont confront the virus. The virus is FIRST, or all else fails.

When Texas reopened../1

...I said, I can't comprehend how stupid people are. The virus is desperately hunting for hosts, and we are about to hand them up. We look only at what *is* - not what will be. "The numbers are small, so let's act solely on that information."

In Texas, I said "5 weeks." And../2

here we are. And as politicians slowly addresses it, it's going to get worse.

The same reality applies to "let's open schools." The rationale is "Well, kids don't die." I have no idea when that became our standard. Kids scream in pain, kids get hospitalized, some kids die.../

...in fact, what number of kids die? Let's say its tiny percentage: 1/100 of 1%.

That's 56,000 dead children. The largest death toll for children of any preventable event in American history.

56,000 graves. 56,000 children dying without their parents, who are forbidden.../4

...from entering the hospital.

But dont stop there -thats just the number who DIE. Hundreds of thousands of kids will be hospitalized. Of those, the data indicates, the majority will have lung lesions. If no way is found to treat that, they will be suffering with breathing../5

...problems for their entire lives. Will Johnny be able to play football if he struggles to breathe? Will Susie be able to play basketball?

But dont stop there. Kids are superinfectors. One of the primary causes of disease spread, in normal times, is children. They infect.../6

...each other because they are in close proximity, reckless, and certainly not able to sit still. They won't take this seriously because - BY THE VERY ACT OF SENDING THEM TO SCHOOL - we're telling them we aren't worried about it. Otherwise, they'd know: We dont care about.../7

...rolling the dice with their lives. Because it's not convenient.

And so, they will get infected and bring the infection home. Mom, dad, siblings, grandparents will get infected by each other. And all of them will be wandering around -after all, would you really send kids.../8

...to school unless you falsely thought it was safe?

Their teachers will get infected, & they will have to live through being told Mrs. Smith died because, well, it wasn't convenient to leave you home, we thought it was bad for you to be at home.

But Mrs. Smith will infect.../9

...lots of people before she dies. Because, remember? we opened the economy. Because we wanted to go out to dinner, get a haircut, go to a bar.

Hospitals will overflow with millions. And so people with diseases that need normal treatment - cancer, heart attacks - will die.../10

...from lack of access to medical care.

This isn't hopeless. It is doable. But NOT if we maintain our stupid, self-centered approach to this. Kids will die or become super spreaders because we wanna send them back to school AND we dont wanna do what we need to do NOW to.../11

...stop this and keep them safe. We want, we don't want - a virus doesnt give a damn.

This virus could be controlled before school in the fall, but we won't because we're lazy, stupid, and self-centered. If we CARED about kids - and faced reality - we would accept.../12

...that we fucked up, that we didn't listen to experts, that we didn't do what we needed to do, because it wasn't politically expedient or match what some idiot on Facebook says.

We needed to have a complete shutdown in April. We had a half-assed one, so we had the pain.../13

...without the gain. We are STILL trying to persuade people to wear masks. People STILL dont get that the main purpose of wearing a mask is not to protect yourself, it is to protect your friends, your community, your city, your state, your country.

We need a complete.../14

...shutdown. We need a massive program of payments to people - an unprecedented one - so they can survive. We need the National Guard - decked out in protective gear - to deliver supplies to homes, including food.

Why so extreme? Because we're idiots. Because we let this.../15

...because we let this get so insanely out of control and STILL dont have a national plan to deal with it. We all say "Well, someday there will be a vaccine." Seriously? We are gambling our country on a hope and a prayer?.../16

..Hell, if people who understand this give up, recognize that America is not mature enough or smart enough to manage this, and decide to flee to a country that knows what it's doing - we can't. We cant fly to the EU - we're banned. We can't go to Canada. We're banned.../17

...we are stuck here, the virus burning through our country, growing inescapably each day, because we STILL dont understand how infections work, we STILL dont understand that your numbers today are the final tally of all infections from the past 14 days, and that we won't.../18

...TODAY'S actual, total number of infected for two weeks. But over that time, the infected will be out shopping, getting haircuts, and yelling "I dont WANNA wear a mask."

You want to send kids back to school? GROW UP! Face what we've let happen. Face that we are living.../19

...with the consequences of our recklessness, face that it will simply explode MORE as we infect each other more, & kids get infected & the exponential growth is uncontrollable.

You dont wanna shut down the economy? The virus doesnt caee. THIS is the result of our refusal.../20

...to sacrifice for a few weeks. People dont WANNA get chemotherapy, but they have to suck it up. If they wait & wait because they dont WANNA, then they need more chemotherapy. If they wait too long, it's too late.

For GOD's sake, we need to grow up. Or it will be too late.
end

...Addendum: Case in point.