So far there are a few lessons COVID-19 has taught us: America is ill prepared for such a pandemic, people don’t know how to properly wash their hands (or they just don’t wash them at all), and they also don’t know how to properly cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze.
If there was ever a reason for people not to have faith in the government, this was it. Slow movement on the federal government’s part is one of the reasons the virus is spreading across the country. Instead of using the test already developed by the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention insisted on creating its own test, which proved to be unreliable and caused the U.S. to lose weeks of testing — not to mention allowing the virus to spread. Just think of how many people were contagious, didn’t know it and infected others. In turn, those people infected more, and a vicious cycle ensued. In addition, guidance from the federal level also initially tested only those coming back from international travel. At one point, people were being denied testing. Talk about incompetence. Basically, more people should be tested and more people probably have the virus.
On top of all of this, we have a president who made outrageous claims without any scientific evidence — you can go to work infected, warm weather will take care of the virus, and it’s nothing more than the flu. It’s one thing when regular folk and average Joes spout off nonsense, but it’s totally different when the man who sits in the Oval Office and supposedly leads this country passes on misinformation as fact. I try to be as polite and professional as possible on this page, but this is buffoonery at the highest level.
The Obama administration created a unit to address pandemic disease. Well, the Trump administration in all of its brilliance and desire to erase any Obama-era measures dismantled the unit so there wasn’t a team in place to handle preparedness for the coronavirus. This would be comical if lives weren’t at stake.
As of now this pandemic is changing the way many of us live. Schools are closing, college campuses are planning for online classes only, sporting events are being canceled or played without an audience present, etc. in an effort to mitigate the spread of the virus. As I write this column, 10 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Indiana. Those people live in Adams, Boone, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion and Noble counties. I suspect more cases will turn up as more people are tested.
Many of us are washing our hands thoroughly for the first time. If you’ve ever been in a public restroom — even at work — you’ve seen someone who used water and no soap or simply walked from the stall out of the restroom door. I was raised that you washed your hands when you used the bathroom, before you cooked and before you took anything out of the refrigerator or freezer.
I’m a bit of a germophobe. Shaking hands isn’t my favorite thing to do, and now I’m convinced we need to ban handshakes. A few years ago public health officials created a campaign that changed how we covered our mouths when we sneezed or coughed. Instead of using our hands, we’re supposed to do so in our elbow. True, some of us don’t do that or don’t cover our mouths at all, but the point is the method changed. We need the same type of campaign for handshakes. Replace them with a fist bump or an elbow tap because we know colds, flu, E. coli and other germs are spread this way. This pandemic should be a lesson in real time about how quickly disease spreads, and how we need to be as proactive as possible.
The Indiana State Department of Health created a dedicated page so you can stay on top of the latest developments with COVID-19. Visit in.gov/isdh for more information.
