Civic Lessons From COVID-19
Dear Editor,
The 18th Amendment was essentially a public health law to improve social determinants of health before these terms were widely used. It’s an example of an epoch public health policy failure.
States raced to implement strict quarantine policies. Several suggest maintaining until improved testing is widely available. However, what does improved testing mean and what does it accomplish? Testing is not an end point in itself. It is a component of a decision point. Policy makers must explain the purpose. Is this a true need or an imaginary barrier to mask fear of removing restrictions? Even if the sky is falling, voters have the right to transparency.
These policies severely restrict economic activity that resulted in millions unemployed. Tenants cannot pay rent. Landlords cannot pay loans. Less income exists to tax. State policies directly reduced their tax base. The number of states implementing restrictive policies reduce the federal government’s tax base. States are requesting federal aid for lost income caused by state policies. Instead of employing out of work citizens, building domestic capacity, governors outsourced essential medical products overseas.
Strict policies exempted factories producing “essential” healthcare products. However, many “essential” medical products require “nonessential” inputs. The policies shattered supply chains. The abundance of states with similar aggressive policies devastated supply across the country. Since a state cannot force out of state “non-essential” factories to supply internal essential factories, they require federal assistance.
Many of these policies significantly reduce individual rights. Physical protests are strongly “discouraged.” Facebook’s CEO doesn’t understand or agree with protestors concerns about overzealous counterproductive policies. HE censored groups organizing any kind of protest as “fake news” regardless of users’ knowledge, credentials, education, and experience. Many distancing laws include monetary penalty and jail time. We risk fines for protesting policies that cause job loss. We are forced indoors and punished for using parks where UV light and wind evaporate virus droplets. We can be put in jails that lack these protective factors. Exercising personal constitutional freedoms are punished while many criminals are been freed. We are being restricted indoors while prisoners released.
We are citizens of both state and federal governments. Both have competing and overlapping responsibility. Why should the federal government shield states from negative consequences of policies that reduce both tax bases, complicate both coordination efforts, and overzealously impinge on citizens’ individual rights to participate in government?
Alan Burke
In order for the average citizen to better understand how this so called pandemic rates with other forms of death, it would be good for the news media to cite the number of deaths per day by category for the top 5 causes of death in the US. Currently, even if a person had terrible underlying health conditions and caught the corona virus, the CDC has instructed the health departments to list the cause of death as the corona virus. Just imagine, five people are killed in a car accident and when if there is an autopsy, three are found to have the corona virus, their deaths are contributed to the virus not the actual cause of death. The same goes for homicides and suicides. The lack of common sense during this so called pandemic is so egregious that it results in such widely interpreted misinformation rather than the true facts. Hopefully, someone somewhere is taking note and after this hardship has passed will come forward with a truthful analysis. In major crisis like this, it is often difficult to see the branches for the trees and the pathway to a solution is obscured.
“Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/26/drinking-alcohol-alcoholism-binge-deaths-fatal-cdc/11384335/
I am frustrated by anti-stay-at-home protesters. This article is an example of them using overblown risks and fears (no one is going to jail over stay at home protests unless the disobey police direction during protests) to make their point. The irony is that many believe the fear of the virus is over blown.
To reopen the economy there has to be understanding and agreement on how we will have to change how we conduct business over the long term….and yes…testing is critical to that change. Exposure tracking is also critical. If you want to economy open, protest the lack of coordination and support by the current administration. It is that failure that has led to the prolonged economic crisis. Without a strong leadership that supports open honest feedback and criticism can they drive the cohesive strategy to save our economy.