Thread by @ASlavitt

COVID Update August 2: If someone told you, you could save somebody’s life, your answer would be what do I have to do?

With thousands of people dying every week from a virus that now even the White House admits is out of control, our odds of saving lives have never been better.

Johns Hopkins has a model for how many people will die between now and November 1 if we do nothing different. It is 70,000, a number year ago that would have been unthinkable to imagine if it’s not unimaginable now.

70,000 in 3 months.

Rather than shrug it off, or despair, the right response in my opinion is “great, what do I have to do to prevent that.”

Here’s the great news, most of those 70,000 people are not even SICK today.

Those of us on that list are going about our business struggling through this pandemic, trying to stay safe, stay calm, stay sane, keep our incomes.

Hoping to figure out when & how to get our lives back.

Some of us on the list may be in denial. It’s scary. We don’t want the pandemic to “take over our lives.”

Maybe the numbers are in OUR favor. We’re young. Pretty healthy. White.

Maybe we won’t be the ones to die if we get it. Could be it passes through us unnoticed or w mild symptoms.

But what were we doing those last 8 days before we got the positive test? Who did we run into? It was pretty crowded that night. Any of them have sick family?

By one estimate we can save 30,000 lives with a simple action. Or lose 20,000 more by letting up. This is from Johns Hopkins.

Is this the most important thing?

During 9/11, many brave people rushed into those buildings. Several wrestled a plane to the ground. Many more enlisted in the military.

I was 34. I did none of those things.

My second child was born in November. My dad was dying. I knew 6 people who died. I have a friend whose father was a firefighter who died. He was 7 when his dad went into the South Tower.

Risking your life for others is unimaginable. I would never pretend to be brave enough.

But this. This I can do.

I am tough enough to put fabric on my face.
I’m persistent enough to ask others to do that.
I can surrender my personal liberty, gladly.

I do that all the time. See I never just do what I want without regard for others. Or if I do I feel like a shit.

But when I learned #zachsmath that each of us could save 20 lives by not breathing near other people, I was all “sign me up for that.” I am definitely brave enough for that.

I will admit I have stared at this graph a lot today to make it seem real. To zoom in & see someone’s mom who always knows what to say, someone’s sister who is a rock, an orderly who keeps hospital rooms clean.

I have trouble not comprehending why this isn’t without question the most important thing. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t do whatever they could to save a life, 10, 30,000.

OK, I may know of one person. But he doesn’t really speak for me, or a lot of us.

What reason do we have to not do this? What reason do we have to not throw the kitchen sink at this?

What are we going to regret later knowing we could? Will it haunt us if we don’t when this time is over? /end