More (Ugh) Commentary About COVID-19

A few weeks ago I mentioned what New York's governor Cuomo flatly stated himself: the social distancing and shutdowns were for one aim: to ensure the availability of ventilators...along with the necessary hospitalization beds and staffing...when the virus outbreak spikes.  We were "flattening the curve" to give the health care professionals the capacity to treat anyone with serious complications from COVID-19.  But now it is no longer spiking at its former exponential rate and NY is lending its own ventilators to other states.  Dr. Fauci, also a few weeks ago, had predicted that most Americans would eventually be exposed to the coronavirus and reflected what Cuomo had said about the need to ensure enough ventilators during the ongoing spike...hence the restrictive measures.  The coronavirus is already all around us...like the Matrix in that movie series where everything breaks down to microscopic zeros and ones, it is unseen to the unaided eye.  It hides within as many as half of those afflicted with it without any symptoms but is still extremely contagious for anyone unfortunate to come in contact with its carriers...or breathe the air they just exhaled.  Reopening the society will in all likelihood ramp up the infection rate...it's not going away anytime soon, maybe never.  But hopefully...and the news media has stopped reporting on it as if it is no longer a priority...they are still working hard on producing more life-sustaining-and saving ventilators should their need sadly sharply rise again.  I've stated before that reopening the economy will be a divisive subject, and it seems as if the two political parties...along with their followers among the populace...are regrettably dividing down their respective reds and blues on which strategies to take.  I'm still trying to follow the various distancing, mask-wearing and hygiene protocols and will continue along this line into the indefinite future: I don't have a personal "deadline" for ending this like some others apparently do...

Another observation about the pandemic: if you watch TV or go on one of the updated tally Internet sites, they emphasize total infections in different places along with the deaths.  Although the online charts usually mention the totals of those who are listed as "recovered" in some places, it looks as if other places aren't reporting this statistic that I think is crucial.  And CNN totally ignores recovered figures, making me wonder what the follow-up protocol is with all those who have tested positive...do they just let them go home and self-quarantine and then forget them unless they show up at the hospital with serious symptoms, or do they perform tests on them later on to see whether they recovered?  The death totals will always increase...when the dead start returning to life on Earth let me know.  And the total infected will likewise always increase...that is, unless you subtract from them the number of recovered cases.  And aren't the net totals of those currently afflicted what people want to know?

Does intensity of initial exposure affect the degree of severity of illness?  While acknowledging that every virus is different, armies in the past used to infect their own soldiers with small amounts of smallpox in order for them to achieve immunity from a possible future full attack...most became slightly ill for a few days and recovered, although a few did die.  Does getting repeatedly blasted with COVID-19 in large concentrations...as opposed to picking it up once in a setting where the virus isn't in numerous amounts...make the progression of the disease in the body more harmful?  And as far as immunity after you've had it is concerned...or the notion that a future vaccine is even possible...scientists are unwilling to be affirmative in either regard. But people shouldn't automatically take this negatively since if something hasn't been shown scientifically to be true, then scientists will, by the nature of their craft, refuse to categorically confirm it. One ominous sign, though, is that this particular strain seems to have already mutated into two different forms...

And finally, as I have stated before, I believe that the raw figures of confirmed coronavirus cases are misleading and should be replaced by updated results of randomized statistical testing covering different states and regions...the latter would in all likelihood demonstrate both a much larger prevalence of COVID-19 among the general population while at the same time point out hot spots where the illness seems to have a much higher presence...