We have been battling this COVID virus for a year now. Over 400,000 people have died which is essentially the same number of military deaths in World War II. That war ended but this one still presses on and there are estimates that the death toll could reach 500,000 by the end of February. This is a war in any sense of the word and now, one year after we began this battle, there is finally a national plan to combat this menace that is ravaging our society.
Yesterday, I downloaded Biden’s COVID plan from the White House website and read the executive summary. I am encouraged that the current administration is taking this seriously and the plan does seem comprehensive and well-thought out. In addition, it is data and science driven and will provide access to that data to the public. Transparency will be the new norma. Included as appendices were a number of Executive Orders signed by President Biden designed to bring the full force of the Federal government behind this effort.
While I am overjoyed that we have an administration in place that is stepping up to fight this war, I am still somewhat confused by why the magnitude of this crisis and the threat it poses to this country is so underappreciated by some sectors of the population. As I thought about this, I think I came up with something that might explain some of the denial or hesitancy to take this seriously. I think the simple fact is, it is not ‘real’ to a lot of people. Certainly, if you or your family have been directly affected by a COVID infection, it is probably more ‘real’ to you. However, to large segments of the population it is just an abstract ‘thing’.
Contrast what we see and hear on a daily basis with what we saw during the 9/11 attack or the attack on Pearl Harbor. Today, on the news we might see a few seconds of footage of a hospital hallway with anonymous patients lying in beds. Or we might hear a short, sometimes emotional, interview with a healthcare worker pleading with people to take this seriously. And then to top it off, we see bar graphs offered up by TV newscasters and various medical experts to show the current trends in infections and deaths. All of that still doesn’t make this ‘real’ to a lot of people.
When the 9/11 attacks occurred, we were all spellbound watching our TVs. Buildings were on fire and collapsing. You could see people jumping from 100 story buildings. Thousands of people were covered with ash from the collapsing structures. Shortly after the attacks began, every single plane in the country was grounded. We had been attacked by foreign terrorists. There was carnage everywhere. It was very real. Almost everyone was affected. As a result, the country came together and hardly anyone argued that we as a country had to act swiftly and decisively. It was about America – not politics.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked, it was the same thing. There were pictures of burning, sinking ships in the harbor on Oahu. Pictures of bomb damage and fires left in the wake of the attack. There were stories of the hundreds of deaths resulting from the attacks. Once again, the country came together as the country entered World War ll to face a common enemy who had attacked this country. The pictures of the carnage made this very real to all Americans. It was about the country – not politics.
Unfortunately, I don’t think there has been enough visible carnage from the COVID pandemic to get the attention of a significant segment of the American populace to the point where it becomes real enough for people to put politics aside and put the country first. This is exacerbated by the campaigns of misinformation that have been propagated by various media outlets and politicians. The daily death toll now is about the same or greater than in the 9/11 attack. I can assure you, that if there were pictures of a 9/11 style attack on the news every single day with all of the attendant carnage and bloody bodies laying in the streets, the America public would immediately feel the reality of the crisis before us. Unfortunately, there is just not enough visible, ‘made for television’, carnage surrounding the COVID pandemic to make it real for a lot of people.
I know that is a very harsh statement to make, but I believe its true. I don’t know how else to explain it. After the attacks on 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, thousands of Americans volunteered for the military to go pick up weapons, put themselves in harm’s way, and risk their own lives to combat a deadly enemy. Now, it is sometimes difficult to persuade people to even do something as simple as wear a mask to help fight an enemy that is every bit as deadly as those foreign forces that attacked our country.
The good news is that there is finally a national strategy to fight this war. We can only hope that a majority of Americans will get behind it for the good of the country and put politics aside. We’ve done it before. There is no reason we can’t do it again.