Here is a headline in Newsweek I saw today:

White House Misled Public, Buried CDC Reopening Guidelines and is Now Preparing for Second Coronavirus Wave

— Newsweek

I wonder what they mean by “Second Coronavirus Wave.” That would mean that the first wave is over. Here is the “curve” of the United States as of Mother’s Day 2020:

This is the current curve of infections in the United States and represents 1,329,225 positive tests and 79,525 deaths. This is one wave. I don’t see where the first one has stopped.

In contrast, Germany has the 7th most infections in the world. Here is their graph:

This is what a flattened curve looks like. From that I can see that measures in Germany have been working. When I compare this to the United States in general, there is a marked difference. Germany, and other countries like Italy, France and Spain, are all taking measures that are brutal, but work. The United States is not.

I can take a look at these numbers with a sober eye and a scientific mind. They are what they are. I am not emotional about this.

However, what angers me is when I hear people saying that “people are going to die anyway, so why bother….” This is brutal. Most of the 79,000 Americans that died of this disease would not have died otherwise, at least not yet. If this were business as usual, why do we have:

— Medical workers protesting on the streets

— Emergency doctors and nurses dying in record numbers

— A lack of PPE in hospitals

— Bodies piling up in refrigerated trucks in New York City

This is a virus, and – I hate to use the trite expression – it spreads virally. Without containment, we would see the curves even steeper. If we want to see society as we know it break down, we could try to just let it go. After all, people will just die anyway.

But first, let me move to Papua New Guinea.