We can stop wondering whether there’s going to be a second wave of COVID-19. Because, says Dr. Rex Archer, Kansas City’s health director, “we’re in a second wave, no question” in the metro area. “We’re getting more cases now than we’ve ever gotten.”
Yet with “at least 10,000 cases” — that’s estimated, not confirmed — and rampant community spread, Archer said, we’re also taking fewer precautions, and generally behaving in ways guaranteed to keep the number of infections climbing, often in triple-digit daily increases.
“My fear,” he said, “is that the only thing that will wake us up is when we have to start triaging hospital bed availability.”
The most reliable models now predict another 100,000 COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S. by Oct. 1, on top of the 116,140 we’d had as of Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
We had peaked locally in mid-April and had just started to get the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic under control, Archer said, when “both governors opened up” businesses in Kansas and Missouri, “and the White House started pooh-poohing that there was any issue.” Mixed messages and virus fatigue pushed us in the wrong direction, and cases started rising again almost immediately.
THE FEELING that COVID-19 is no longer a real concern is irrational but widespread. And given the evidence that mask-wearing really does decrease the spread of the coronavirus, refusing to wear one in public is selfish. This simple, inexpensive and only mildly inconvenient measure has been found to have “significantly reduced the number of infections.”
If you thought about the alternative, you’d know it’s not an option: “You can get this disease,” Archer says, “not know you have it and kill a high-risk person.”
Which is why the whole laissez-faire “wear one if you want to” attitude is not just careless but callous.
“Any responsible business owner not requiring or providing masks isn’t helping us save lives,” Archer said. And if that doesn’t move you, maybe this? “If we don’t, we’ll have to shut down again.”
A few other notes from the city health director, none of which you want to hear:
On President Donald Trump’s Saturday rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where cases are already spiking: “If it’s indoors” as planned, “I don’t think there’s any question it’s going to be a super-spreader event.”
On Father’s Day: “How many people want to celebrate Father’s Day by infecting their grandfather?”
On fine or even not-so-fine dining: “No one with immune problems should be eating in a restaurant right now.”
Better to wear a mask than to wish you had.
— Kansas City Star
