President Trump was riding high just a month ago, free from the hassles of an unjustified and unsuccessful impeachment attempt by the Democrats, presiding over a country that was at long last energy independent and with the best economy in half a century, maybe ever. People who had previously been immune to hope now had some and were looking at unprecedented opportunities. My how things can change on a dime.
Now instead the President is presiding over daily Wuhan Virus Task Force meetings, which now discuss just how many Americans are estimated to die from a virus apparently originating in the disgusting China ‘wet markets’. Markets which now have reopened even as the world still reels from their devastating repercussions. And watching his amazing economy grind to a halt under several complete state shutdowns. In order to ‘save the people’, he’s forced to kill his own economy. It’s devastating to consider for the country, and hurts me to have to watch it for him. He’s worked so very hard to right the ship of America, and taken so much abuse along the way.
It’s an unenviable position to be in, but not surprisingly, he’s handled it amazingly well, once again showing that he’s not only the right person at the right time to handle something like this, but that he’s made stronger when not only fate works against him, but the incessantly petulant and destructive media as well. With their idiotic gotcha questions which serve only to create soundbites, they expose what Trump has always said about them, which is that they’re fake news. And right on cue to prove it, CBS got busted this week using a photo of an Italian hospital treating coronavirus patients, having claimed it was in New York.
So how do we stop this thing then and get back to work and normal? I’ll be honest, I don’t trust the imbed bureaucrats in the government, so even when it’s ‘credible’ sources, I question it, such as with the suggestion to not wear face masks. An idea which is now being reconsidered, as countries like South Korea and Taiwan seem to have mitigated both the spread and the fallout of the virus, despite being close to its origination point.
According to the website Foreign Policy article ‘Fear of China Made Taiwan a Coronavirus Success Story’, as of March 16th, ‘Taiwan has 10 million masks a day, widespread tracking, and just 1 death despite being close to the outbreak. Taiwan has only 67 cases (currently 325/5), which is admirable in itself, especially when compared to its larger East Asian neighbors.’ But our ‘experts’ have denounced the idea that masks will help stop the spread, and in fact that they are perhaps more dangerous. Seriously?
Back to the economy though. As we consider all of the events leading up to the current situation, which is that this country, as are others, is being seriously affected by actual cases and fatalities, to what extent do we completely close the country and likely destroy our economy in order to ‘save lives’?
There are as many human ‘costs’ to shutting down our economy, and the job losses that occur, millions of which are already declared, as there are human lives affected by the virus, from illnesses and hospitalizations to deaths.
As of today, after 3 months of the virus being known about in America, we have 189,441 known cases and 4,074 deaths attributed to it. At the daily Task Force briefing yesterday, both Fauci and Birx suggested we could have between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths from it. We have a population of 320 million plus people. Among deaths from other illnesses, we have 24,000 – 60,000 flu deaths each year, 47,143 suicides each year and 69,029 drug overdoses. We don’t shut down our economy over either of those though, and the latter two examples will likely exponentially increase as the economy is shut down over coronavirus.
This is obviously a very sensitive subject that no one wants to discuss – death, and what ‘risk’ we should be willing to assume as free citizens. The Left, which advocates for abortion up to and even after birth as well as euthanasia, is mocking the Right’s ‘pro-life’ stance for suggesting the country needs to get back to work as soon as possible and not commit economic suicide in order to save lives, which is exactly what is happening. In many states, all businesses are closed. In my home state of Florida, many businesses are closed, and most restaurants and hotels are closed. Some restaurants are doing well with takeout, but with no in-house dining, most will be crushed. That’s millions of jobs in a state heavily dependent on tourism and hospitality. Florida currently has 6,700 cases and 85 deaths out of a population of 21.3 million.
At some point we need to have a grown up conversation about the reality of risk and life. All of life is a risk. Driving a car is a risk, being on a ladder is a risk, having a gas stove is a risk, and people die from those every year, in fact 38,800 in 2019 from fatal car crashes alone.
And no, I’m not being trite, I’m being truthful. Do I want to get the virus and or die from it? Of course not. But I also don’t want millions of my fellow Americans to lose their jobs, go into poverty, become victims of desperate criminal predators or become desperate criminals themselves.
In fact, the societal fallout is already starting in other ways beyond the devastating unemployment numbers. According to WFTV9, ‘More than 34,000 calls were placed into a hotline for vulnerable populations and at-risk children over the first four weeks of March, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families. February saw roughly 26,000 calls in comparison, so that’s an increase of 30 percent.’ 30 percent! And that’s after just 2 weeks of a shutdown in this state! Under the direction of the ‘experts’, President Trump has suggested another 30 days of a national shutdown, and some other states have arbitrarily declared 75. Where will we be then?
We’ll see soon enough what the ultimate repercussions are both from the virus itself and the economic effects, and I’m praying for the best. Just remember though when you head into the voting booth America, assuming we actually have a Presidential election, that when President Trump was establishing the Coronavirus Task Force in January, Democrats were impeaching him. And when Trump and Republicans were trying to get money into the hands of the American people in March to soften the devastating blow of the virus, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats not only delayed the vote a week, pushing back relief, but were trying to slip in taxpayer funding for abortions and illegal aliens.