Now, class, I’ve got three graphics to show you today, so don’t doze off on me.
The first is the number of new coronavirus cases in the Kansas City area as of Monday. The area includes Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas. On Monday, according to The Star, the area saw its “sharpest rise in the number of new COVID-19 cases.”
That’s not the sharpest in the last week or so — the sharpest since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The next graphic shows the number of new cases in the New York City metro area.
The last graphic shows the number of new cases in the rest of America.
Now, if I was President…or governor of Missouri or Kansas…or a mayor in any of the municipalities in our metro area, I would be hard pressed to tell my constituents, “OK, let’s get about opening things up.”
And yet, state by state, area by area, we are reopening. Clay County and Platte County began opening the gates Monday; Kansas City is having a “phased reopening” starting today and expanding on May 15. Jackson, Johnson and Wyandotte counties are “closed” until Monday, and I’m not sure what’s going on with those jurisdictions after that.
I understand the pressure our elected officials are under to reopen businesses and let people get back to work so they can start getting paid again. And I understand, to a lesser degree, the libertarians who fuss and fume and say, “You can’t shackle me!”
But, my God, I fear the price. Nationwide, we are now at more than 71,000 deaths officially, and the real number is probably a lot higher. We’ve all heard the predictions of a much higher incidence of new cases and additional deaths, and with this stampede to reopen it looks to me like we could easily be at 140,000 deaths by the end of June of middle of July.
…Well, Patty and I are not among those champing at the bit to go back to the restaurants, department stores, box stores, even the grocery. I learned my lesson March 24, which was Day 1 of Kansas City’s lockdown. I wrote blithely about going to six stores that day…Yes, six! A few readers rightly chastised me, including our son Charlie, who works at the University of Chicago Medicine. One reader told me to limit myself to one store once a week and added, “Be a good citizen.”
The rebukes hit me like a bucket of water in the face, and I immediately reformed. Since then, I’ve averaged no more than one store a week, and, for the most part, we have relied on Instacart for our groceries.
Most of the people who are screaming to get out of jail free are younger and less vulnerable to COVID-19 at its worst. I sense that most older people, like me, are more willing to wait another one, two or three months to make sure the case numbers have been going down instead of staying steady or rising.
Before this pandemic hit, I didn’t know much at all about the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, but we’ve all heard a lot about that now. And we’ve all heard, haven’t we, about the pandemic’s deadly second wave — more deadly than the first — and the third wave in 1919?
History is staring us in the face, and it has presented us with a gun, which we’re holding in our collective hands…It looks like we’re about to squeeze the trigger.
**
There is only one perverse positive element to this situation…It is Baby Boomers, by and large, who elected President Trump, and it is they who will suffer the most from these premature reopenings. If it gets grim, as I suspect it will, more and more people of my generation will turn on Trump.
It’s not much to cling to because I think Trump has already done himself in. But it’s the only glimmer I see on the dim horizon.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
If the openings are premature, anyone can choose to stay home. Also the numbers are going up because the testing is going up. We can’t lock down our economy forever and no one knows what the perfect timing for reopening is. For us old people, proceed with caution!
Amen! And, lots of things are being attributed to COVID when the real crux and cause of the health issue is something else.
Not getting our economy back on track is going to kill a lot more than this virus will.
“It looks like we’re about to squeeze the trigger.”
Dr. Archer certainly shares that opinion about reopening society: “To reopen before any federal dollars have yet to reach 99% of our nation’s local health departments is frankly, insane.”
Trump could lose the election. I hope to god, he does. But if that happens, McConnell and his majority in the Senate will find a way to overturn the results. Then, by a 5-4 vote, The Supreme Court will uphold it. We’re becoming a fascist country and a segment of this population – few of which read newspapers or informative blogs- are embracing it, all in the name of freedom.
Knowledge is power. Without testing – knowing who has the COVID 19, where it is and how fast it is spreading – we are wallowing in ignorance. But we already know that, based on who’s in the White House and who’s protesting in the streets. My paternal grandmother died in 1918 of the Spanish flu, leaving my dad an orphan at 2 years old (his father died just before he was born from yellow fever he contracted as an army sergeant during tours of duty in the Philippines). At 71, I don’t want to be the ironic victim of a microscopic terror enabled by selfish, incompetent people in power. But I – we – may no longer have a choice.
Wow, you’re poor father. What a hand to be dealt at age 2!
I have a friend who is the head of the cardiac care unit of one of the major hospitals in the area. To those over 60, he had this warning: We all need to lay low until there is a vaccine. One person asked about getting a small group together next month and he discouraged it.
This virus is going to start running wild as we “open up” because of the folks who do not take it seriously. It only takes a small portion of the population. Incredibly there are people in my social circle who still think it is hoax/conspiracy despite the fact we almost had one member of our group die from it (and he was in his 40s). Thank you, Fox News and right-wing, talk radio.
We are going to see in the next few months what starting the year would of seemed to be an incredible number deaths from this virus. And if you want to read something about the people who become incredibly sick and survive, check out this link:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/what-are-covid-19s-long-term-medical-effects
Scary is it not?
For sure…I’ve told a few people I’m not sure I’d agree to being put on a ventilator. Eighty percent die, and if you live, your brain or other organs could very possibly be permanently damaged. I’m doing all I can to stay away from places with more than a few people, and when I’m out, I’m wearing a mask. When I get home, I wash my hands immediately. Even with that, of course, there’s absolutely no guarantee. It’s a risky business all around.
The Daily Beast had an article on ICU cases last month (this mainly discussed cases prior to the virus). After a several day stay in ICU, 80% of all patients had some kind of permanent health and/or mental issues. One third of them never returned to work. The medical community is not sure why and what happens to cause this.
They’ve already told the person in our social circle that they have permanently lost 20% of their lung capacity. They have been out of the hospital three weeks and are still struggling with muscle loss. The rest of us wonder what kind of health issues they will have for the rest of their life.
The virus is real and dangerous, but unfortunately, the response from public officials has often been inconsistent, tyrannical and politically driven.
We complain about small mom and pop stores but then allow people to stand belly button to asshole in Menards, Costco, Walmart and other huge corporate entities that sell the same products as the little local shops.
The claim is made that a church conference was the villain in KCK, but at the exact same time shoppers at Nebraska Furniture Mart dwarfed that tiny gathering and yet no link to that event? Utter spurious bullshit.
Even worse, we have idiots like Quinton Lucas and DeBlasio in NYC being correctly compared with Nazis for their draconian over reach. Deblasio blasted for telling officers to round up Jews who defied his ban while Muslims were given a pass and Lucas here in KCMO for demanding that church attendees register so they can later be harassed.
Like Fitz, I’m hunkered down and engage in even more extreme measures when i go out, carrying hand sanitizer with me as well as Clorox wipes at each stop for the things I touch.
John A has it pretty much right…
I too practice safe distancing, carry wipes and hand sanitizer and mostly try to lay low, but not to the extremes of many.
The mistake I think Fitz is making here is trying to lump all of society into a single category that largely includes him and people over age 60 or 65 and those with specific pre-existing conditions.
These people need to continue to self quarantine to a large extent and in many (if not most) cases, they’re retired and living on savings, social security, Star pensions etc. anyway. They’ve had their time and made their money.
The point being missed, isn’t that people like Fitz implies just want to hit restaurants and watch sporting events, but rather people under 60, 50, 40 and down, NEED to work, continue to build their savings, keep their businesses afloat, etc.
The odds are infinitely small that younger people will get seriously sick and die by conornavirus. But if their lives are shattered by the lockdown, they will suffer even greater losses – including of their lives – by going broke, losing their small businesses, marriages that fall apart, etc.
Oldsters need to do their own thing and allow younger generations the chance to survive and prosper.
Because for older folks to lump everyone in the exact same category is unwise, given the different risk factors they face, while ignoring the equally daunting risks younger people face in terms of economic hardships.
Seems pretty simple to me, but for some reason, some people seem inclined to ignore the obvious.
Not to mention, this is a worldwide pandemic and it’s not all about Donald Trump.
Costco and Menards now require a mask to enter. I have a friend from Wisconsin whose son works for Menards and he said they had confirmed that someone had caught the virus by tracing it to one of their stores. Menards will sell you a mask for $1 if you do not have one.
The experts say if both parties are wearing a mask, you decrease the possibility of catching the virus by 80+ percent. My last few visits to Costco most people have been very polite and keeping their distance. Most are wearing masks. The ones who were not are those not keeping their distance as a sign of their defiance. It’s very libertarian of them (until they need help and we are to immediately to help them).
We have a group of people in this country acting like 10-year-olds (monkey see Trump, monkey do).
For those that say just open it up and young people have nothing to lose, how about this article and new DOD policy:
Coronavirus survivors banned from joining the military
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/05/06/coronavirus-survivors-banned-from-joining-the-military/
What does DOD know that we don’t about long term effects? Also bad news if 60-70% of the population has to get the virus to get immunity. Talk about limiting your enlistment pool.
My heart goes out to Steve above. I just finished doing a story for my paper about a lady who never knew her paternal grandfather. An Army doctor at the time (he had left a civilian practice to accept a commission as a first lieutenant), he died at 44 at Fort Sill in February of 1918 from the flu, which had turned into meningitis, leaving behind a wife and two sons under 15 years of age.