U.S. reaches grim toll: As nation records 3 million COVID-19 cases, experts see more danger on horizon.
Experts lament nation’s false sense of security
United States on Wednesday reached 3 million documented cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, a virulent bug that crawled into the national consciousness early in the year and is likely to consume the rest of it.
The United States has roughly a quarter of the world’s cases and the same percentage of its deaths.
While many Americans might now be numb to the growing coronavirus toll, avoiding the reality will likely make matters worse.
It took the U.S. a little more than three months to hit 1 million cases on April 28. It took 44 days to get to 2 million on June 11 and only 26 days to reach 3 million on July 8. By that gauge, if no new measures are taken, 4 million cases could be tallied by July 22.
A few elected U.S. officials seem ready to slow the pace of business reopenings. But others, such as Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, remain steadfast in their desire to prioritize the economy in a politically charged climate that has turned masks into a divisive symbol.
One reason could be that the number of those killed by the virus (131,000) hasn’t spiked, encouraging those opposed to renewed shutdowns, including President Donald Trump.
COVID-19 deaths long ago rocketed past annual suicides (47,000), common flu (55,000), diabetes (83,000) and Alzpitalizations heimer’s disease (121,000) and are fast coming up on strokes (146,000).
“Like a runner coming from behind in a macabre race, it has surpassed the death toll of many diseases so many Americans consider important,” said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. “People may get numb to the numbers, until it strikes someone near them.”
Another problem, Woolf said, is the delayed and sometimes insignificant impact of the virus.
“Human beings are used to learning from their behaviors with the immediate response. You touch a hot stove, and you get the results right away,” he said. “With this, the people going out and partying and going to the beach and so forth all occurs weeks before the host he start increasing, so there’s less opportunity for society to learn their lesson from some of these behaviors.”
Death might be the only motivating factor capable of changing U.S. hygiene habits and reopening plans, said Carolyn Marvin, Frances Yates Emeritus Professor of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania.
A growing number of people in their 20s and 30s are ending up in intensive care units and on ventilators, causing state officials from Ohio to California to shutter bars and other businesses that draw large numbers of often-unmasked revelers. Getting this segment of the population to take the virus threat seriously will be a critical part of driving the numbers down in time for the fall semester.