9:00AM
Many people in the US are now calling for the shelter-at-home/stay-at-home orders to be lifted, saying that forcing someone to stay home is fascism and that this country is built on freedom. I’m not sure how I feel about this.
On one hand, I agree with them—that the government should not tell people what to do, that people should be free to move about as they please. On the other hand, I see how such freedom of movement is likely to disproportionately hurt some more than others.
Maybe it’s not about whether people move freely but whether the government restricts them from doing so. What if we told ourselves, without any forceful government intervention, that we want to stay at home to save so many others? I think this may work for most people. The problem is, I think most government interventions happened because people weren’t staying at home, weren’t voluntarily abiding. I believe it becomes really difficult to voluntarily comply: if I choose to stay at home but my employer says that I need to work, staying at home means I will lose my job. I’m not sure that’s a decision most people want to make.
However, let’s assume that the government opens it up and people move about freely. Let’s also assume there aren’t that many tests and not much contact tracing, as it doesn’t seem to be happening or being coordinated at a federal level. I imagine what would happen is what happened before: the virus would grow exponentially and then hospitals would be overwhelmed. If hospitals are overwhelmed, that means doctors and nurses are working 12-14 hour shifts (or longer), with inadequate personal protection equipment (PPE), and likely seeing people die one after the other. I can’t imagine what they are going through now, as the virus is slowing down because everyone is staying at home, to what they would be going through if we open up, and how many waves of devastation they can handle before they give up. And this is assuming they don’t contract the virus and either die from it or spread it to their loved ones. I can’t imagine the suffering they must be experiencing.
So when I think about that, I wonder if the people who are shouting at the government to open up are considering the impact it will have on the doctors and nurses. I imagine they won’t be the only people overwhelmed with this. What about the other people who interact with lots of people on a daily basis? The supermarket workers, the flight attendants, the store clerks, etc. While they may not die from the virus, they may get very sick, or even pass it on to someone they love who will die.
I understand that being locked at home has its downsides—plenty of them. I just hope that as we open up more, we do it more responsibly (with tests, contact tracing, and other proven epidemiological tactics), so that we protect as many as we can.
9:10AM
