Letters to the editor for March 29
COVID-19 failures
Among the many failures of government at all levels related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the worst is that related to testing for the disease. Without real data, all the actions and recommendations promulgated at all levels is worthless. Without a valid sampling of the population, all the statistics are meaningless.
South Korea is a good example of a proper reaction. It set up “drive-thru” testing stations where citizens could get sample testing done while sitting in their cars. An even better method would be to test at selected locations where a good cross-section of the population would pass, such as grocery stores, subways, train stations, and airports.
The testing should be free and could be made completely private by linking results to a number such as on a roll of raffle tickets. The sample would be identified with one half of the ticket and the person would get the other. The person giving the sample could then check online as to the results and remain anonymous.
Certainly scientists and bureaucrats could have easily come up with a solution like this long ago, if their own egos and interests weren’t their driving motives.
Coronavirus is a lesson in connections
If there is one thing the new coronavirus should have taught us — and by us I mean humanity — is how interdependent we are on each other.
We are in an interactive web where what I do every second, minute and day of my life impacts people I know, don’t know and will never know and what those same people do every day that know me, don’t know me and will never know me impacts my life. When one or few people are removed from the web, the web adapts and continues on and fills in the gap left by the removal, but as we are seeing now, as more and more people are being removed, the web is starting to break down.
I only hope and pray that by doing what is necessary now, that the break down will be short and we can break the transmission cycle of the coronavirus. I also hope that this will be a lesson for us and that we will treat our fellow US citizens and the people of the rest of the world with more empathy and kindness realizing that we really and truly are all in this together.