Rx, for an unplanned disaster

"But the big 'whoops' is how our nation is fighting this thing. Instead of having a rock solid plan in place, one which would not require this choice of shutting down the economy or protecting the citizens, we get daily spits and starts."

What we are seeing right now, as this nation is all tied up in knots from last week, is a perfect example of not being prepared, Relax - this is not about individual prepping - although I could blather on about that for pages. This is about how our nation prepares for an unplanned disaster. And in my book, this invasion of an unseen virus, has turned into an unplanned disaster.

Let's just for a minute, revisit some of our fairly recent history on actual or near disasters:


Y2K - We had forever and a day to plan for this thing. This thing which never happened. But if it had, we had some plans in place. To some degree, we were ready.

9/11 - We really got caught with our shorts down. Even though, the bad guys had tried to take down the twin towers in 1993, we learned nothing. In our naivete, we knew this could never happen again. We are America. We have oceans protecting us. So when it did happen in 2001, this nation (collectively), was running around like our hair was on fire. The market tanked, things came to a standstill, and the government told us to go out and "buy something". It was a mess and took a long time and over a trillion dollars to recover.

SARS - This could have been a worldwide killer. SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. This hit the world stage about 2003 and spread from there. Fortunately, this disease was not that tough to contain, as its transmission was basically limited to drops of moisture let loose when and infected person coughed or sneezed. After dodging this bullet, it would have been a great time for world leaders (especially ours) to come up with a plan should this ever happen again. Like, if the next virus was much easier to transmit. We did nothing.

MERS - Similar to SARS, this respiratory virus (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) came about in 2012. Like SARS, it was a stone cold killer. About 75% of the folks which got it, died. Also like SARS, it was tough to transmit. Had to be moisture let loose from an infected person with a cough or sneeze. Once again, after dodging this bullet, it would have made sense for the WHO and CDC to come with a plan on what to do if something much tougher came along. We did nothing.

Coronavirus - That brings us to today. How prepared were we for this new virus which came from Wuhan China? Not very, I am afraid. Since SARS and MERS attacked the upper respiratory area (just like the common flu does), one would think we would have had respirators and ventilators coming out of the woodwork. We did not. In our panic, we needed to have companies (like an auto manufacturer), re-purpose their lines to make respirators. But we still have a critical shortage. We also have a severe shortage of surgical masks and testing kits.

But the big "whoops" is how our nation is fighting this thing. Instead of having a rock solid plan in place, one which would not require the choice of shutting down the economy or protecting the citizens, we get daily spits and starts. We are trying to figure this out as we go. Full shut down, partial shut down, or no shut down? Unknown at this point. Meanwhile, NYC has turned into a global "hot zone" for being late to the party with no plan. Like maybe having 10,000 cases of coronavirus in that city alone.

This weekend, the Governor of New York had a presser which gave some grim news. This new virus is so virulent, the measures we are using to protect people are only temporary. In other words, up to 80% of New Yorkers will eventually get the disease. Cuomo said we need to slow this down until we get enough respirators. This is a plan?

Meanwhile, how are you doing? Are you positive or negative with this virus? Don't know? Join the crowd. Since this virus can live within a person for weeks without showing any symptoms, and still be infectious, many of us end up being unwilling carriers. Very few of us are being tested. Those who know they have the virus can go into a "self quarantine". Those who don't (because we won't test them), just keep on spreading the virus.

Here it is only Monday. Again, more questions than answers. Stay informed, stay prepared, try and stay healthy. Good luck to us all.