We might be forced to live (if we are fortunate enough) with "unacceptable" mortality rates.
We can do what we can, or we can do what we are willing to, but nature ultimately reigns supreme. The Plague once decimated Europe (actually that's not severe enough a term to use since decimate literally implies 10% casualties). Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere were almost wiped out by Small Pox. Humans have more tools now to combat pandemics than we did in prior centuries, but we are far from being all powerful as Covid-19 clearly demonstrates.
Society can not stay in near total lock down indefinitely without increasingly negative consequences beginning to cascade out of control, ultimately posing alternate severe threats to our health and safety. I hate that, but I get that. We will lose loved ones one way or the other, and some of us will perish ourselves. There are no ideal choices to make, not before an effective vaccine is developed or quick acting dependable treatments are developed anyway. Could we "accept" one or two or three percent mortality rates from Covid-19? We will have no choice but to do so if we have no choice other than to do so..
When all is said and done, people will rise to the occasion, no matter how horrific it may be. History shows us that. The only real question then is how horrific must it be? This is where the wisdom of Niebuhr's prayer applies: "Father give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other (the original version.)"
I have adequate wisdom to know this. Our nations response to the Covid-19 pandemic under the Trump Administration must be altered and it can be changed. Our nation's resources have NOT been fully marshaled to quickly identify infections as they occur, nor to aggressively pursue through contact tracing all who might have been exposed to any infection carriers so as to inhibit further transmission..
Therefore this is not the time to call for serenity to accept what can not be helped. It is time for raging at and countering Trump's willful ineptitude that is senselessly sentencing tens of thousands of Americans to unnecessary deaths. After we get this thing right then I will accept that we can't just seal ourselves away from this disease indefinitely, and then I will pray for the serenity to accept the human sacrifices that we inevitably will endure.
= new reply since forum marked as read
