RI Is On Pace for 100% of the Population to Be Infected in the Next Year - Nick Landekic
Monday, November 16, 2020
Rhode Island has achieved a perfect score: 100%. That’s how many of us are now predicted to get COVID-19 over the next year, according covidactnow.org. The pandemic is now so completely out of control in Rhode Island that modeling forecasts literally everyone in the state will become infected over the next year. There is no more ‘taking your chances’. It will affect each and every one of us.
In response to this devastating crisis, despite professing appreciation for the seriousness of the catastrophe the Governor in her most recent press briefing announced... nothing. Just a continued obstinate refusal to do things that could actually help us. 765 new cases were reported on Friday, hospital emergency rooms are overflowing, and beleaguered doctors are pleading for help. For six weeks even our appallingly high thresholds for new cases, and now hospitalizations, have been exceeded – without meaningful action.
The lines of infection rates are going literally straight up with no end in sight. Governors in other states with lower infection rates than ours are urgently taking vital actions to save lives. Instead, Governor Raimondo gives us a stunning abdication of leadership. At this rate, her legacy will be turning Rhode Island into a humanitarian disaster.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIs it time to consider the unthinkable: should Governor Raimondo resign? As the philosopher Daisaku Ikeda said, “A person's true nature is revealed at times of the greatest adversity.” Sometimes crisis inspires strength and brings out true leadership and people rise to the occasion. But not everyone has what it takes.
Governor Raimondo has scolded us for our bad behaviors that are spreading infection. We are all ultimately responsible for our actions and their impacts on ourselves, our children, our families, our friends, and on all Rhode Islanders. However, the Governor is shirking her responsibility by enabling an environment that encourages reckless behaviors.
It sends mixed messages to both reprimand us for gathering in groups while at the same time letting bars, restaurants, places of worship, and other places where people gather indoors to continue to operate with no meaningful restrictions. Everyone is tired of the pandemic, and if you let restaurants and bars stay open for indoor seating, it sends the signal that it’s OK to go there (because otherwise why would they be open)? You can’t blame people for taking advantage of available opportunities. If it isn’t safe for people to congregate indoors, then they shouldn’t be open.
Getting elected to political office usually means making contradictory, mutually exclusive promises to as many people as possible to secure their votes. However, once elected one needs to lead. Leadership is not a popularity contest. Being a leader means having to sometimes make very hard, unpopular decisions that many people might not like, but are for everyone’s good. Medicine usually doesn’t taste good, but it can save your life. We need some strong medicine right now to save us.
It’s not a choice between ‘jobs’ and ‘health’. The same things that protect our lives also minimize financial pain. Economies collapse when going outside is dangerous; they thrive when people not only feel safe, but actually are safe. Only a charlatan would argue that people’s health and lives must be sacrificed for the sake of the economy.
The term ‘lockdown’ has become absurdly politicized and emotionally charged. Call it whatever you want – containment measures, or a freeze. Call it for what it really is: saving our lives.
The cold hard facts are that when the pandemic has been allowed to get as completely out of control as it has in Rhode Island, a few superficial, useless tweaks make absolutely no difference. All of the Governor’s trivial actions over the past few weeks have accomplished nothing. The growth of infection is now exponential. You can’t put out a raging forest fire by spitting on it. As Dr. Michael Fine has repeatedly said, it’s too little, too late. If we want to survive, we have to start over. The unpleasant fact is that people gathering in contained spaces with few masks is a guaranteed recipe for infection, and that must change.
As much as we don’t want to hear it, right now it's not safe to go out. It's not safe to have others over. Cancel the happy hours, dinner parties, sleepovers, and playdates at your home. Support your local restaurants by ordering take-out, and recognize that being indoors without masks will spread infection. Embrace remote learning for now for your children, because you probably don’t want to gamble with their health and lives. If at all possible, arrange to work from home. If a friend or family member invites you over, offer to hang out virtually instead. Everyone needs to wear a mask whenever you go out of your home.
These are the hard truths shown by numerous studies. Being young won’t keep you safe. If you’re under 30, you may be more likely to have a stroke, get cognitive impairment, have heart damage, or chronic fatigue from COVID-19 than someone over 60 has of dying of it. The thing about science is, it’s true whether you choose to believe it or not.
There was very encouraging news this past week regarding vaccines, but it is still unknown how long protection will last. Some studies suggest immunity might only last a few months. The progress is promising, but more work remains to be done and time is needed. As Dr. Jeffrey Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical recently said, “If you are looking for a magic wand, you won’t find one in vaccines”.
Some people will complain about how uncomfortable masks are, and how inconvenient and unpleasant it is to not be able to eat indoors. It’s even more uncomfortable and inconvenient to die of COVID-19, or to spend weeks in a hospital struggling to breath, or to have heart damage, cognitive impairment, or chronic fatigue.
If we are to live through the pandemic and want to avoid literally everyone in Rhode Island becoming infected, we need leadership. We need someone with the strength, courage, and willingness to make difficult, disliked decisions. We need someone able to give us the medicine that many people won’t take willingly. We need someone who will listen to people like Dr. Michael Fine, and take actions such as Governors of other states are doing.
So far, Governor Raimondo has not done this. We get reprimands and ineffective token gestures, but we continue to get sick and die at a horrifying rate. If Governor Raimondo has reached the limits of her abilities in this crisis, then maybe it’s time for someone else to step in who is able to do what’s needed. Maybe it’s time for either Lieutenant Governor Daniel McKee or Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattielo to step up.
There is no more time to waste. Every day in Rhode Island another almost thousand people get COVID-19. Of those, hundreds could end up with long term or permanent disabilities, and dozens might die. And it just keeps getting worse.
These are not just ‘numbers’. These are people. Any one of those numbers could next be someone you know, or someone you care about. It could be you.
Contact your local Rhode Island state representative. We need to deluge our local officials with calls and emails and demand they abide by their oaths and do what is needed to protect our health, to save our lives, and to help those who have been financially hurt by the pandemic. Rhode Island over-estimated the cost of testing by $150 million. How about redirecting and instead using that money to help those who have lost their jobs?
You can find your local state rep here:
We need to dig deep and summon courage and strength because it’s going to get worse before it gets better. We must be brave and make short-term sacrifices. Let’s protect ourselves, each other, and those we care about by doing the only things that have been proven to work to contain the pandemic. The choice is ours, and our lives are more important than a Governor’s ego.
Nick Landekic a retired scientist and biotechnology executive with over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
Related Articles
- Enough Is Enough, Raimondo Needs to Lead on Coronavirus - Nick Landekic
- Four Hopkins Volunteers Test Positive for Coronavirus, All Worked Election Day
- Biden Names Coronavirus Task Force
- 5 Major Coronavirus Developments - RI’s Conflicting Policies, Pfizer Vaccine, Are Outside Tents Safe
- Providence Police Coronavirus Cases Climb — 19 on Force Now Out
- Healthcare Crisis: U.S. and RI Have Record Number of New Coronavirus Cases
- Downtown Providence Restaurant Turns RI Coronavirus Restrictions Into Cocktails
- Providence Police Hit By Coronavirus Again - More Than 10 Out Presently
- Record Number of New Coronavirus Cases in RI — Watch Raimondo at 1 PM
- Raimondo Issues 7 New Coronavirus Restrictions
- Some Unexpected RI Cities and Towns Are Seeing Record Increases in Coronavirus Cases
- Building School Community During Coronavirus: PCD’s Director of Student Life LIVE
- UPDATED: Coronavirus in RI Spirals Over Weekend - 1,600+ New Cases and Hospitalizations Hit 212
- ACI Hit With as Many 90 Coronavirus Cases This Week, 53 in Max Security
- Ivy League Cancels All Winter Sports Due to Spread of Coronavirus
- At RI’s Rate of Increase of Coronavirus, State Headed for Thousands of New Cases Per Day
- RI Cities and Towns with Coronavirus Cases 2x RI Standard—See Where
- Prov. Municipal Courts to Cease Hearings Due to Spread of Coronavirus Until Further Notice
- Top Doctor Says RI Needs New Strategy to Combat Coronavirus Disaster in State
- 919 New Coronavirus Cases in RI — Explosive Outbreak
- Woonsocket School Employee Dies From Coronavirus-Related Complications
- UPDATED: 781 New Coronavirus Cases in RI Reported, Daily Record of New Cases
- Investigation: Raimondo Administration Overestimated Cost of Coronavirus Testing by $150M
- RI’s Record-Breaking Coronavirus Week — Watch Raimondo’s 1 PM Press Conference LIVE
- RI Nursing Homes Slammed Again By Coronavirus, Data Shows RI Is 4th Highest for Deaths Per Capita