Originally Posted by
Ive always been a dreamer
First of all, thanks so much to everyone for keeping my family in your thoughts and prayers. My brother's family is still stable, and their symptoms aren't mild, but they aren't severe either at this point. He says this is nothing to take lightly and that you do not want to get this. It takes this virus a long time to run it's path and it's really scary because it can cause so many other complications. I've got my fingers crossed very tightly that they will all be okay, but I also know how quickly things can change with this, so I'm still very worried.
This has been an interesting discussion. As far as the number of cases and deaths here in the U.S. and our federal government's response to it, I think it's hard for most of us to see this as any kind of success. The federal government's role in times like this is to facilitate an ongoing coordinated, centralized effort that ensures our states have what they need to protect all of our citizens until we have this under control. That has simply not happened in this country. It is not and should not be the states responsibility to fend for themselves and compete against one another for what they need.
I agree that we don't know what the true number of confirmed cases and deaths are here. While there may be some cases of unethical or fraudulent reporting of numbers, I doubt that this is a widespread problem much more than it has been with past virus outbreaks. I think it is far more likely that the numbers are under-reported because we don't have a clue how many infected people are out there spreading the disease. So, until our federal government provides us with the ability to test our citizens at the same level as we do our government officials, we will not get this under control for a long while yet. That's all I'm asking - if I want to be tested, I should be entitled to do that even if I don't have symptoms.