Who would have ever thought that circumstances would force us to put a value on human life? Well, those are the kind of questions we are down to with the current pandemic. Officials are now forced to weigh the value of human life against the consequences to our economy and changing our way of life. Can we change how we live until there is an effective way to stop the coronavirus? Imagine what an opportunity it could be. Imagine humility shaping the way we live our lives. Imagine people being forced to face themselves, and find creativity. It would be a glimpse of the way people used to live, and hopefully, an appreciation of what has been lost. It might even lead to some legitimate change in the way people think about human life; about what’s important.
This morning, a study released in Los Angeles concluded that 95% of the California population would contract the virus if we returned to life as normal today. I presume that would be the same almost everywhere. Obviously, nobody is planning to return to normal today. However, the study speaks to the highly contagious nature of the deadly virus. If we start even a “gradual” reopening of the country, it would have to be done under such strict standards, many businesses simply could not function. Regardless, consumers will be reluctant to return to places like bars, restaurants, movie theaters, amusement parks, concerts, sporting events, and anywhere crowds gather. Basically, consumers will not feel safe participating in life as we know it in America until the threat is gone. Until that happens, all of those segments of the economy will not return. That means all of the jobs that support those industries are gone for now, resulting in tens of millions of unemployed Americans.
So, what do we do? Well, we have a few basic choices. We can change the way we live until a solution to stop the virus has been found, or accept millions of Americans dying. The numbers range from catastrophic to unbearable, no matter how you slice it. The United States has a population of roughly 330 million citizens. If we returned to life as usual, roughly 95% of the population would be infected, and our healthcare system would be so overrun that people would basically be on their own. In places where that has happened, like Italy, the death rate is over 10%. If you’re keeping up with the math, that would result in more than 30 million Americans dying. Alright, that’s the worst case scenario, so let’s get to the current numbers in the United States. Let’s say the death rate is about 4%, which presumes that all the infected can be treated by our healthcare system. The report also concluded that with our current measures, it is estimated that about 30% of the population will still be infected. Well, even that would leave over 4 million Americans dead. Did you catch that frightening statistic? Even if we continue doing what we are doing now, 30% of us will ultimately be infected. The report finally concluded that added measures could keep the infection rate down to about 5%, equating to roughly 15 million infected, and 600,000 American deaths. That is the best case scenario, and it would still be an unbearable tragedy.
For me, any of the outcomes are tragic, and the only decent choice is to take every measure possible to save every human life we can, period. Eventually, once we have a vaccine or other cure, life will return to “normal”. But maybe “normal” can have a little more humanity in the way we interact. Maybe people will have a deeper appreciation of how great life is in America. Perhaps the word “freedom” will take on new meanings. Maybe we will have learned new things, or even found creative talents we were unaware of. And maybe, just maybe, this experience will hand us all enough humility to be profoundly grateful for life itself.
– Rondym Kiefe