Lessons Learned?

"Since chance favors a prepared mind, it is time to do that with ours. No more getting blind sided. No more flinch. We need to use hard empirical evidence to prepare for any waves which might follow. If none come - good. Then we can use that knowledge to be prepared for the next virus to come out of China." 

One of the President's medical advisors (right now, I can't remember which one), recently said that when the next wave of COVID - 19 comes to visit, we should be "over prepared". I guess that contrasts with getting caught flat footed like we did with this one. Now I am not being critical (except for the CCP not telling the world anything), nor am I blaming (except for the CCP), but we are lucky to be as well off as we are right now. That being said, there are many, many questions left to be answered - and quickly.

Questions like - what the hell happened in New York City? How did that area become the number one hot-spot in the world? Why not Tokyo? Why not Seoul? Why not Beijing? New York City is not the largest city in the world (it is the 9th or 10th largest), and yet it has galloped ahead of the other mega-cities in the world. Japan, which has Tokyo (the largest city in the world), has less than 1,000 deaths in the entire country. New York City just by itself, has almost 21,000 deaths. Why?

Closer to home, our biggest lesson learned will come from how to keep our most vulnerable safe. In other words, the elders in our long term care (LTC) facilities - or, nursing homes. With our state death toll approaching 900, we still have 81% of those deaths happening in our LTC facilities. If the CCP had come clean with the world, on how easily this disease was spread, many of those in LTC facilities who became infected, might not have been. In a perfect world, where none of those 81% who died in LTC facilities, did in fact survive, our state death toll would be under 200. For a state of 5,700,000, that is a fairly low number.

Many other questions should be addressed. Masks. Do they work or not? Everyone who is paying attention, know that cloth masks do not protect you. Supposedly they only protect those around you should you sneeze, cough, or even talk. Some are now saying that face shields work better than masks. And are less obstructive to one's breathing. And what about N-95 masks for the health professionals? Do they filter out 100% of the spores, or only 95% of them? In other words, can you still get COVID if you are wearing a N-95 mask?

We have to learn from this first wave, and learn fast. China will be of no help, so the free people of the planet need to share information with each other on what they learned. I am particularly interested in how countries like Japan, South Korea, and India, all have numbers so much lower than ours. Especially the New York City metroplex. Is it our diet? Our genes? What is it?

This COVID - 19 has been a kick in the gut for us. Way too many people died. Way too many people became sickened. Way too much damage to our economy. Now we need to get up, dust ourselves off, and "learn some things". I am in total agreement that before any more waves of COVID visit us, we need to be "over-prepared". Like way "over-prepared". 

Since chance favors a prepared mind, it is time to do that with ours. No more getting blind sided. No more flinch. We need to use hard empirical evidence to prepare for any waves which might follow. If none come - good. Then we can use our knowledge to be prepared for the next virus to come out of China.