These days, people say things like, \u201cI\u2019m praying for
\nthis to be over, so we can get out and go back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
I reply, \u201cMe, too. And I\u2019m praying people won\u2019t keep
\ngetting sick and dying from the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their reaction indicates they haven\u2019t thought much
\nabout that aspect of the crisis. I\u2019m guessing Kim McGahey and Patrick
\nAugustine, judging from their April 28 letters to the editor, are in that
\ncategory.<\/p>\n
We have now lost more than 60,000 fellow Americans to
\ncoronavirus in three months \u2014 more than we lost in 20 tragic years of the
\nVietnam War.<\/p>\n
Yet complainers rant about state and local
\nrestrictions designed by health professionals to protect all of us. One
\nprotestor grumbled, \u201cIt\u2019s not fair to the rest of us who don\u2019t have
\ncoronavirus.\u201d<\/p>\n
What kind of \u201cfairness\u201d do they want? The kind that
\nallows them to infect themselves and each other? If that were the only outcome,
\nwe could say it\u2019s fair. But when they\u2019re also likely to infect the rest of us, that\u2019s
\nwhere fairness ends.<\/p>\n
We all sympathize with Americans who have lost jobs
\nduring this crisis and businesses that have lost money. In no way do we
\ndownplay their losses. But it seems painfully obvious, from public health
\nprofessionals who actually know what they\u2019re talking about (unlike some of our
\npoliticians), that our only way out of this \u2013 until a cure and vaccination are
\nfound – remains social distancing and testing as much as possible.<\/p>\n
Health professionals warn reopening everything too soon could allow COVID-19 to rebound, spreading rapidly and killing more Americans. Let\u2019s prevent that by showing courage and compassion, staying the course together until this scourge is under control \u2013 according to those professionals, not politicians trying to score points by pandering to their base.<\/p>\n