Positivity

It occurs to us that some of our latter posts about the current virus situation have been somewhat negative in tone at times. They may be heartfelt, but it also occurs to us that there is already plenty of negativity to be found on this topic. So, today we are going to focus on some positives that might have gotten buried in the noise.

The United States, and many other countries, have successfully “flattened the curve” of viral transmission. Remember, that was the goal of all these stay at home orders and lock downs. It was never to have no virus, or sadly, no deaths, because that is simply not how an epidemic operates.

In the United States, there never developed a shortage of hospital beds, ICU space or ventilators. US hospitals now have plenty of room for all the patients they need to treat, even in the hardest hit areas.

In New York, the United States epicenter of this infection, the disease has slowed so much, that they have had to add in “presumed” deaths in order to keep the drama going. We’re going to go out on limb here and say that “not enough deaths” is a good thing!

We now have a much better understanding of how this virus operates than we did a few months ago. That will be very helpful in determining which interventions have the most positive effects with the least negative.

For most people this virus is at most an inconvenience. If you are a young person you may not even know you have been exposed to the virus, and even if you get sick, it is likely to just be at worst a bad cold. Very few people under the age of 50, or without underlying health conditions have become seriously ill or died. That’s not much consolation, perhaps, if you or your loved one was one of the rate cases, but imagine how much worse it would be if this was not the case.

The vaccine industry is being revitalized and is hard at work developing a vaccine for this virus. The knowledge and resources they gain will also help us fight other viral pathogens in the future.

So, some good news!