The
Second Wave
To
open or not open, that is the questions.
Whether it is nobler to save a nation’s economy and essence for its
survival in reopening job options or continue distancing its peoples and killing
off industries to try to save the masses is its perplexing dilemma. Providing paycheck protection sounded good
without appreciating the need to insure ample opportunities for minority
communities for inclusion was essential.
Stimulus checks were to put money in people’s pocket without appreciating
the wolves at the door to claim this morsel of sustenance from their
suffering.
So
let’s do it again and get it right for the Corona virus isn’t going anywhere any
time soon. Social distancing reveals too
many believe that like Superman they are invulnerable. Some believe that it is Biblical and the
Lord’s design so they do as they may without appreciating what my father the
preacher conveyed . . . the Lord helps them who help themselves. Many are obfuscating the issues clouding the
picture with unclear information.
One
note to Public Health which Johns Hopkins taught and which Hand Washing
illustrates, if you want to control worldwide disease, start simple -- while
vaccinations may be important, clean water and sanitation are primary. This requires an understanding of aquifers
and how to maintain their purity.
The
Second Wave of information is now showing that the destruction of the initial
attacks is far from done and its effects will be felt by some for a while. It is clear that the Corona virus is more
that a respiratory disease -- it is a multi-system disease which is also
attacking the nervous system, kidney, and brain with strokes as a complication
and hallucinations whose long term prognosis isn’t clear. Children who were once thought to be not at
higher risk are experiencing Kawasaki’s disease (inflammation of the vascular
system). Dialysis may end up being a
need as great as respirators before it’s over.
When
to truly open up society will not totally rest on the advent of a vaccine. Medicine alone cannot dictate such a
time. It can only give parameters to
consider. No one has been clear as to
when one is infective and how many negative carriers are out there. The evidence doesn’t clearly define if
positive antibodies mean personal immunity from further infections or the
ability to transmit the disease to others.
The money for testing and all other bailouts probably now exceeds the
gold in Fort Knox.
With
AIDS, which still has no cure and can only be prevented in changing behavior, it
has been the individual viral load which has been a predictor of
infectivity. Some medicines used to
treat that disease have been shown over time to have some side effects which
compromise the individual. A most
impressive work for the Corona virus is that which few are talking about
involving community viral loads taken from examining sewage. This may prove helpful in determining
environmental exposure to this virus and suggest a gastrointestinal component to
this disease. If the community’s viral
load is high it may show a need for continued social distancing. But we don’t have the data yet to do
such.
Van
Jones, an often bombastic African American political analyst is being excoriated
by the media and black community for rightly suggesting that lifestyle choices
severely impact on society’s expression of disease though the inequality of
opportunity and lack of access to basic services may worsen such among
minorities. There is no doubt that Pot,
Alcohol consumption, and Smoking negatively impact on ones immune system.
Multiple sexual partners and other alternative
sexual choices increase ones risk for HPV, Herpes, AIDS and other viral diseases
which are killing us.
The
old adage of “you are what you eat” has implications for those who consume bats
and non-domesticated animals which expose them as well as the human food chain
to viral diseases.
What
the second wave of the corona virus will spawn is unphantomable. What the economic disasters of prolonged
unemployment and loss of work are doing could be worse. As in war, non-perfect
decisions are made that have to be lived with.
We are likely at such a point in time.
Ada
M. Fisher, MD, MPH is a former Medical Director in a Fortune 500 company,
licensed teacher, retired physician, former county school board member, served
in the Naaational Health Service Corps, speaker, author of Common Sense
Conservative Prescriptions Good for What Ails Us Book 1 (available through
Amazon. Com) and is the NC Republican National Committeewoman.
