The selective caution of American public health officials is a tragicomedy. If you’re on a cruise ship or just got back from Italy and happen to grab the attention of the right folk, we take dramatic steps to prove we are Doing Something. Massive outrage if the chosen victim does not abide to strict quarantine. Otherwise, it’s see-no-evil.
Community-transmission cases among the elderly in small-town South Carolina? Oh, gosh, I don’t know, maaaybeeeee there kinda could be sorta possibly other people with the thing? But it’s so hard to know and we’ll have to maybe think about possibly investigating perhaps.
Since I happen to know a fair number of elderly rural South Carolina ladies, let me tell you who’s got it:
- Church
- Grocery Store
- Doctor’s Office
- Grandchildren
Those are the hot spots. Not difficult. Don’t need a degree in public health to figure this one out.
Ditto the genius reporters who were left wondering whether the middle school student in Oregon had any contact with other students, teachers, or staff. Um, guys . . . what world are we living in? Have you ever, in your life, been to a middle school where lockers and desks were all two meters apart, and children walked through the halls at a distance? Of course there was contact. That’s how school is.
I’m pleased to see that Canada is stepping up their testing — several provinces are reporting that henceforth anyone with respiratory symptoms will be tested for COVID-19 as part of the same panel that tests for flu. That’s how you do it.
Not sure why Americans can’t have that.
Photo: Boat trapped in ice, from The Story Shackleton’s Last Expedition, courtesy of Wikimedia, Public Domain.
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