So much owed by so many to so few
There is little doubt that we are in a time of distress. There seems to be so much outside of our control.
Our government is taking aggressive steps to contain the spread of this deadly virus but no one knows how it will progress. History has instructed us that early precautions are the best method to contain the spread. In 1918, the Spanish Flu hit Philadelphia and despite a spike in local cases and news from Boston which had been hit hard with the epidemic, the city pushed forward with a large parade to support the war bond effort. This proved to be the perfect vehicle for the virus to spread quickly and disastrous to the containment efforts.
This failure in judgement remains today as the leading example of why social distancing is critical to reducing the spread of an epidemic. The news reports of spring break in Florida continuing as usual may, in hindsight, be the “Philadelphia” of this modern epidemic.
In Italy, where the virus has spread aggressively and the hospital system is overwhelmed, health-care workers are on the front lines of what has been described as a “war” battling an invisible enemy. As health systems become overwhelmed, death rates increase as doctors are forced to adopt triage care, choosing who lives and who dies.
Italy’s death toll has exceeded China’s because China, particularly Wuhan, has been on strict lockdown and reports no new locally transmitted cases. We all need to take social distancing very seriously to avoid overwhelming our healthcare system.
Health-care workers worldwide are on the front lines of this war. They risk exposure, and despite exhaustion and grave danger to their entire families, they courageously battle this virus as they care for our sick. Additionally, grocery workers, delivery workers and truck drivers and all related personnel are exposing themselves to help the rest of us. Everyone of us needs to protect them in order to protect ourselves by restricting our interactions as much as possible, which will reduce infection rates.
In August of 1940, soon after the Nazis began air raids in England, Winston Churchill gave his now famous Battle of Britain speech where he praised the valor of the Royal Air Force airmen and coined the famous comment, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” The same can be said of our healthcare and essential support workers today. The underresourced Royal Air Force airmen were instrumental in halting the spread of Nazism into Britain, which became a key base for the Allied forces to conquer the Nazis in continental Europe.
How do we occupy ourselves during this social distancing? Make sure you check in on your elderly family and friends often by phone, text, email or a handwritten card in the mail. The elderly are the most vulnerable group and need to be protected with extra precautions. If you need to help them get groceries or other necessities, avoid direct contact when dropping off their items.
Remember to wash your hands often and use common sense. Let’s remember to love our neighbors these days, even if that means at a distance. The modern conveniences for grocery dropoff or food delivery can be arranged, many self-care products can be mailed via Amazon or Drugstore.com and others. We must be creative and use the resources available to us and help those “technologically challenged” to set up these services, if needed. We should put our out-of-school children to work and have them teach us how to use these services.
Let’s begin to look at what we can learn from this pandemic and make sure that we have everything in place in our homes, with our families and in our planning. The uncertainty of life forces us to face things we don’t want to, such as making sure our wishes are known and that our “playbook” has been written.
Is your estate planning in place? We have initiated virtual planning where we can have telephonic or video conferencing meetings and continue to make these important documents available to our clients. Covid-19 is making us all look at procedures and what we could and should do better to avoid this panic if another pandemic comes our way.
History is there to remind us that it will happen again, but how will we be better prepared? We have learned that our interconnectedness is both a blessing and vulnerability. However, we can all feel more safe when we know that we have done all that we can in this face of uncertainty. As Fred Rogers said: “Always look for the helpers.”
Sean D. Curran, Curran Estate Law, focuses his practice, 222 N. Kenhorst Blvd., exclusively on estate and elder law, at www.curraneelaw.com.