COVID rates are down but not gone. Remember your neighbors (and get a vaccine).
In 4 to 6 minutes without taking a breath, life is over. But most of us don’t give our next breath a second thought.
A respiratory virus, however, can change that quickly. As reported on NPR, when Audrey Ellis, a 29-year-old marathon runner with no pre-existing medical conditions, came down with a COVID-19 infection, even routine activities taxed her breathing. Eventually as complications mounted, she died from heart failure in March, 2020. Young, athletic and “at the top of her game,” her life was painfully cut short by a virus that wouldn’t quit. To be sure, thousands of people both young and old have recovered successfully from a COVID-19 infection, but over 574,000 of our friends, neighbors and loved ones have not. Their deaths are clear reminders that Covid-19 can kill. The mourning and loss in those families is heartbreaking. None of us wants to be a part of that kind of suffering and would rather think of ourselves as people who build hope for the future.
Growing up in the 1960s, we were bombarded by public service ads drawing attention to car accidents causing 50,000 deaths annually. We were told “buckle up America” in media campaign after media campaign. Now our population has grown from 194 million in 1965 to almost 334 million today and we have over four times the number of vehicles on the road as we did in the 1960s. Yet, the annual car accident death rate is lower, averaging 38,000 lives lost every year. This is in large part due to automatic seat belt use, better highway design and construction, cars with safety features like airbags, and better choices about not driving after using alcohol. These advancements and our adaptive capabilities have combined to help save over 12,000 lives every year.
As we write this, it is springtime and people are moving outside and enjoying restaurants, bars and beaches. Media reports show people gathering and the infrequent wearing of masks or social distancing. There are some who say personal freedoms should not be restricted by public health mandates; these voices speak from strongly held beliefs about our country, the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. We believe in these cornerstones of our democracy and both of us have faithfully defended them in our own times of voluntary military service and public service as university professors and health care providers. Like the founders of our country, we believe that a key role of government is to protect its citizens from “all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
All of us are faced with an enemy now, the novel coronavirus; one that threatens to leave more devastation if we are not cautious and care about one another. Audrey Ellis lost her valiant fight in the prime of her life from person-to-person spread, and this continues to happen. Now is the time to maintain prevention behaviors that will push infection rates down everywhere, for all of us.
We know that as many as 50% of COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic and can cause unknowing spread to vulnerable family members and friends. Loved ones may die as a result of mask-free spring flings when effective public health measures are ignored or poorly enforced. For generations we were taught the Golden Rule, to treat others as you would like them to treat you. The Golden Rule hasn’t changed. Spring is a beautiful season – one where we have the opportunity to spend time outdoors and demonstrate love of our neighbors by wearing a protective mask when indoors, washing our hands, maintaining social distance, avoiding large crowds, and getting the vaccine. We urge doing the right thing, love your neighbor, and together let’s make a brighter future for everyone.. Let us hope that we do not need the loss of a loved one to remind us to care enough to maintain prevention-oriented behavior.
Charles R. Carlson, Ph.D., ABPP, and Craig S. Miller, D.M.D., M.S. are Clinical Scholars sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at the University of Kentucky.