The First 100 Yards of our Coronavirus Marathon

Why Americans died needlessly of COVID-19 and why it’s likely to accelerate in the months ahead as we race to reopen the country.

Depending on where you live, the first wave may be ending for you. Statistically speaking the first wave will have ended when a state has no new infections for fourteen days. Not one state can say this has happened.

Surviving the first wave is not something to celebrate. You survived it because you were likely sheltering somewhere if your state’s leaders were doing their job. The sheltering in place was only the beginning. It was to prepare you for the stage many states are now entering: The far more dangerous and possibly explosive second wave.

The second wave was inevitable. We all knew it. We agreed to shelter in place while hospitals figured out how to prepare for the expected wave of casualties from the first wave. We sheltered in place for two to three months, depending on where you lived in the country.

Before I go any further, I want you to understand my perspective on this virus. Yours may be different, but I hope it isn’t. Let me say it so there is no guessing and no vagary in my words.

The coronavirus didn’t go away. You are not safe.

This is not the world of 2019. This is 2020 and we are all at risk from SARS-CoV-2. People are still dying from this virus and will continue to do so, all around the world, even in places which currently managed to get their infection rate under control; those which managed to isolate the sick, contact trace potentially infected individuals to have them quarantine themselves, maintain shelter in place and entreat their citizens to wear the necessary PPE to survive.

The second wave is more dangerous than the first because people survived it. They psychologically are treating it like a storm or hurricane and they are ready for it to be over. In their minds, they sheltered and the storm has passed. But viruses don’t work that way.

This infection is mobile and will continue to move among us as we move. And as we travel, and ship and return to an international footing, this virus will move across borders, a silent…