Pandemic and economy: Letters to the editor, May 1, 2020

Value of human life vs. the economy

An economy that suffers a recession or depression will always recover.

A person killed by the COVID-19 virus will not recover.

I think this is the reality that we all need to pay attention to.

COVID-19 is not really like 9/11

Analogies such as comparing COVID-19 to 9/11 are spreading as rapidly as the virus. We rely on language to communicate about this pandemic.

But comparing C-19 to 9/11 dead-ends clear thinking. 9/11 and Pearl Harbor were finite, local events with visible actors. C-19 and the Spanish Flu were ongoing global events with invisible actors. Comparing C-19 and the Spanish Flu to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor is like comparing apples to oranges and wondering why you are struggling to understand the essence of an apple.

The CDC now recommends wearing face masks because we learned C-19 spreads through asymptomatic persons who are “super spreaders.”

Those alive today remember 9/11 but not the 1918 Spanish Flu. This demands our thinking become less easy and more thoughtful.

There is no easy analogy for C-19: it is a new event within our lives. We are learning as we go. The goal is to learn and be willing to change our behavior as we find out more about this invisible actor, and be cautious about rushing to find the “right” analogy. Language is a tool to think clearly about what we can see and what we can never see.

Stay home. Stay covered. Stay thoughtful.

Pandemic seems like nonstop nightmare

I woke up this morning hoping this was a long, bad dream. I turned the news on and it was still bad news. Maybe it was fake news on CNN. All TV stations had the same news. Never thought in my 80 years that I would ever see anything like this virus.

I went through Navy boot camp in San Diego during the 1956 Asian flu and the 1966 Swine flu during trade school in L.A. This is like being in a never ending bad sci fi movie!

I remember my dad talking about the Spanish flu he had in 1919. He was in a coma for three days. There were hardly enough people to bury the dead in the small town in Kansas where he grew up. It came in waves from 1917 to 1919. It has been said that this pandemic could go away this summer and come back with a vengeance in October.

Maybe we have all been abducted by aliens and sent to an alternative universe matrix.

I think that I will eat my cold cereal and go back to bed. When I wake up, maybe it will all be over!

Trump’s long-delayed response

The Trump administration's decision to use the private sector to distribute (i.e. sell at high prices) to the states and various hospitals the critically needed masks, ventilators, PPE, etc. is akin to soldiers actively engaged in the battlefield having to wait for Amazon, UPS, Fed Ex etc. to deliver on behalf of the federal government the ammunition needed to defeat the enemy.

President Trump's continued misfeasance and outright negligence in his long-delayed response to the growing pandemic is directly causing the death of thousands of Americans.

This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Pandemic and economy: Letters to the editor, May 1, 2020."