Opinion: I don’t want to be a COVID-19 guinea pig
On Friday, April 24, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s executive order requiring a partial reopening of the state went into effect. Here in Tennessee, restaurants were able to open their doors to customers for dine-in seating on Monday, April 27.
The decision to begin reopening both states has puzzled many, myself included, considering Georgia and Tennessee have had over 24,000 and over 10,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, respectively.
Those numbers look big, but in the grand scheme of things, they seem small. After all, that’s just .226% of Georgia’s total estimated population and .146% of Tennessee’s.
Unfortunately, the size of the numbers — while massively important — isn’t what matters, but it’s how fast these numbers grow.
Kemp confirmed the first two cases of COVID-19 in Georgia on March 2. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee confirmed his state’s first case of COVID-19 on March 5.
Think about that for a moment — in the span of 60 days, the recorded instances have grown from three to more than 34,000 people.
The scariest part is we don’t truly know the extent of the spread, due to the lack of universal testing here in the U.S. Estimates of just how badly we’ve undercounted our cases vary wildly. Still, one thing is certain — the actual number of infected people in the U.S. is currently unknown, and will likely stay that way for a long time.
If you find that revelation terrifying, then you’re not alone. Personally, I have barely left my house in 48 days, and I don’t plan on immediately returning to my pre-pandemic levels of business for several more weeks.
Here in Cleveland, there are hardly any superficial signs that the world is going through a period of great uncertainty.
If you’ve driven past any home improvement stores, you know exactly what I mean — some people just aren’t taking the pandemic as seriously as they should.
The White House’s guidelines for reopening states calls for, among other criteria, “Downward trajectory of COVID-like syndromic cases reported within a 14-day period.”
Currently, neither Georgia or Tennessee’s infection curves show any signs of decline.
The sobering truth is that cases of COVID-19 in both Georgia and Tennessee have yet to have even a week of decline thus far, not including the 14-day period required for most test results to be verified.
I fear Georgia and Tennessee are setting themselves up for devastating failures by allowing non-essential businesses to open so early.
I (or @VP) never gave Governor Brian Kemp an OK on those few businesses outside of the Guidelines. FAKE NEWS! Spas, beauty salons, tattoo parlors, & barber shops should take a little slower path, but I told the Governor to do what is right for the great people of Georgia (& USA)!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 24, 2020
Even President Trump — who held a rally for Kemp’s gubernatorial campaign in 2018 — distanced himself from Kemp’s decision to reopen Georgia despite the state’s failure to meet the White House’s reopening criteria.
I’m terrified of the consequences of opening things up too soon. Part of that is due to the nature of the businesses that are opening up.
Georgia and Tennessee have both specified that bowling alleys and gyms are among the types of businesses allowed to reopen this week.
Think about everything you touch as a customer in a bowling alley — the chairs, the rental shoes, the bowling balls, the name-entry keypads.
It doesn’t take much thought to realize that the gym is where a lot of heavy breathing takes place, especially when you’re doing intense weightlifting or cardio.
It also doesn’t help that most businesses in the U.S. use some kind of air conditioning, which can inadvertently spread particles containing viruses like SARS-CoV-2.
I feel that these reopening orders are akin to asking Americans — especially those with essential jobs — to be test subjects for a hands-off response to the virus.
Some politicians seem to view the reopening gamble this way as well. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman practically admitted she views reopening similarly to a science experiment.
“We would love to be that [control group] so you have something to measure against,” Goodman said in a CNN interview on April 22.
At best, we’re guinea pigs for a federally-unapproved response to the virus. At worst, we’re being led like lambs to the slaughter by our representatives in an attempt to stabilize the economy.
I hope the rates of infection decrease in the coming weeks despite the decisions to reopen in states like Georgia and Tennessee. I hope for the best because that’s all I can do for now, besides staying put and washing my hands.
To know more about testing and COVID-19 symptoms, check the CDC’s guidelines for the latest information.
