To summarize my last 4 posts, to reopen the US economy as safely as possible, we need:

1. Enough personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies
2. Free, accurate, and easily accessible COVID-19 testing and tracing infrastructure
3. Continued research into effective treatments for COVID-19, and access to these treatments
4. Ongoing antibody tests to determine who has already had COVID-19, and to figure out whether a prior infection confers immunity

Even with these measures, outbreaks will happen. But these measures will tremendously mitigate the human and monetary costs of the disease. Although I can’t see us getting back to a pre-2020 ‘normal’ before we have a vaccine against COVID-19, these measures provide a degree of necessary protection.

To me, the crazy thing is that we don’t need to wait for any scientific advancements before we take the first steps to reopen our economy. We have the tools necessary to do so but the implementation of these tools requires our elected leaders to stop fighting and blaming each other (or other countries), and to unite in the worldwide fight against COVID-19. The GOP doesn’t seem to know how to to do this.

I’m upset because I know America could do so much better than this, could be so much better than this in the face of this challenge. We have the technology, we have the talent, we have the resources. But we don’t have the leadership.

In America conservative media and protesters wearing MAGA hats are pitting public health measures and the economy against each other as though they are diametric opposites. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

How can people feel safe going to work without PPE? How can they enjoy a meal out if they’re worried they’ll bring back a deadly disease to a loved one? How can parents send their kids to daycares and schools when they have no idea if any of their classmates have been exposed to COVID? People are scared, and logically so– the consequences of these once-normal actions could now be life-threatening. The economy needs effective public health measures right now, which are far more imperative in a country without paid sick leave or universal healthcare.

Because there has been no cohesive federal pandemic strategy, governors of individual states have had to largely take the initiative and responsibility of coming up with their own COVID-19 responses. Some states are already reopening without the conditions in place to make it as safe as possible to do so. The economic short-sightedness of this is astounding. The human cost is unforgivable.