Today, every single topic is political, including COVID-19.  How you feel about this virus/pandemic, varies greatly, based on your political leanings.  It’s a sad commentary but fact.  If you’re a conservative, you hate the closures, masks and the “over reaction”.  If you’re liberal, you call the President a murderer and compare him to a Nazi.  If you’re in the middle, and there are a few of us left, you see both sides.  There are a few things that need to be addressed however, that should not be political.

First, the shutting down of the economy has led to and will continue to lead to untold suffering.  People will lose homes and cars and their way of life due to decisions made by state and local governments.  That’s just a fact, not an assessment of whether it was the correct decision.  Whether the economy recovers will be based on crucial decisions now being made by politicians.  Health care professionals, not affected by the economy as there are few unemployed doctors, look at this from a purely medical view.  Their job is not to care or rather address whether or not someone becomes homeless as a result of closing the economy.  Their job is to give their opinions on the virus.  Therefore, they should not be the ultimate decision makers in this process despite the fact that those on the left say this should be solely a scientific decision.  Members of the business community need to assess the pros and cons of another shutdown.  But it should not be political.  It should reflect the impact on the lives of tens of millions of Americans.

Second, the shutting down of schools.  The CDC has now addressed school closures and has come out on the side of opening, providing the schools are not in an area with raging spread and that all appropriate measures are taken to protect children and teachers.  Again, depending on where you lean politically will have a lot to do with whether you want schools to open or you want them to remain closed.  Certainly, and as expected, the teacher’s unions want to keep schools closed.  But one thing is certain, children will not learn as much and poor children and children of immigrants will be left behind, furthering inequality.  Wealthy parents, who tend to be educated can help their children or hire tutors to help them.  Poor children and children from families where English is not the language spoken at home, will suffer, possibly irreparable damage.  Six months or a year may not seem  like a lot of time to a 40 year old but to a 6 or 7 year old, it’s a significant percentage of their lives.  Time where they are growing and learning, not just educationally but socially as well.  This time Can Not be made up.  We can not recapture it.  So the decisions made, better be based on what’s best for the children and not politically based/biased.

Third,  we need more specific information on the deaths.  The number of people over 70, 80 and 90.  Those who have preexisting conditions, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s or people who have suffered strokes.  It’s important information.  As of this post, there have been 235,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19.  But more importantly and Never addressed, is how much the actual death rate in the US has increased.  Is the overall death rate up 5% or 2% or flat since this virus reached our shores?  If the overall death rate has not increased significantly, then it means that many of those deaths, attributed to COVID-19, would have died anyway.  Death is sad but the natural conclusion to being born.  It would mean that this truly is a political virus.  Why destroy the economy if there isn’t a significant increase in the overall death rate?

Based on what we now know, we need to protect those most vulnerable.  We need to wear masks and continue social distancing.  But we also need to move on with our lives.  Another shutdown is completely out of the question and will cause the greatest destruction to America and the American Dream than any other event in the history of the country.  Man made, self made.  Never forget that the destruction of the country for extremists on the left and the future for their children and grandchildren is based solely on the single minded hatred of this President.  There’s no other explanation that can be given for destroying the greatest accomplishment of this administration and one that could quite possibly have led to his reelection.