Jack of Harts

TLDR Version:
Mind the Second Wave? We’re IN the Second Wave right now. It started with Chinese New Year. What we have to mind is the Hunger Wave. We have to get our economy running, safely, soon, or the economy that feeds billions all over the world…won’t.

Full version:
There’s an already old joke making the rounds right now. “I’m old enough to remember when the government wanted us to stay home for two weeks to lower the curve of Wuhan Virus.” To keep our hospitals from being overtaxed. Those hospitals were still pressed, primarily in the Eastern States, but the numbers are dropping. Hospitals in the Western States are all but empty, laying off workers because they have nothing to do. But now that two weeks has stretched into three, four, or five weeks, and people tell us we should still stay home.

Because the Second Wave will be coming soon. Maybe the moment we open up for business again. Maybe this fall. Who knows? The Second Wave is waiting for us, and like in 1918 it will kill far more people than we have already seen. So we should stay at home unless we want more people to die.

I contend that we are IN the Second Wave right now. Mounting evidence shows advanced stages of immunity to the Wuhan Virus already in place. Ten to twenty percent of people tested already have antibodies, even though they have not tested positive for the virus since we began testing for it. And there are the reports from all over America of people who had “that odd flue with harsher cough than normal” since as early as December. Many in January and February. February is when I got the odd bug. And we were calculating a higher “flu-like death” index all winter long than the previous year. Not by much, but we were getting hit harder. And we know China had it in that timeframe. So how much of it were we getting?

I contend that the Wuhan Virus was trickling into America all winter long. That we were getting it in small amounts, mostly on the West Coast due to easy travel there, and that it was slowly percolating its way across America. A few more people were dying than normal, but we were building up significant numbers of people with immunity to the virus that would, in the end, stave off any major outbreak.

Then Chinese New Year came. Millions of Chinese from all around the world went home to celebrate. They contracted the Wuhan Virus. They returned to wherever they were working throughout the world, and brought it with them. And suddenly it wasn’t a trickle. It was a flood, and hospital systems all around the world were inundated by it all.

I contend THAT is the Second Wave. Now President Trump banned the Chinese from traveling to America, which stopped those who went home for Chinese New York from coming to our shores. That bought us some serious time. But China threatened other nations not to follow our example, and so their people returned throughout the world to infect others. And those infected traveled as well, many of them coming to the travel destination of the world. New York City. And so the Second Wave still hit us. And the First Wave hadn’t fully percolated all across America to properly immunize New York City. New York City was hit hard, as were the areas around it.

But the Western States have still barely measured a blip. A few thousand here and there getting it. A few dozen people dying. On a normal flu season, these numbers are minor. Because I contend that there was enough baked in immunity already there that it is simply slow to spread. And we are already curving it back down. Our hospitals stand empty, waiting for something to do. Our medical workers are furloughed, wanting to help but not able to.

Is it any surprise that people are calling for us to open back up again? Not to me. But we must be careful about opening back up. All areas that open for business again must maintain sanitary conditions and be careful. To save lives in their areas, and to show other areas that it is safe to open up. Because I can guarantee that if we get a new surge in any area that opens up, the politicians and newsies who are calling for us to be locked up for months or years, will redouble their efforts. They have said themselves that this is an opportunity to spread socialism throughout America, and I do not wish that to happen. I’ve seen enough empty shelves in the supermarkets in the last month to know that I don’t want any MORE Socialism in my home.

So I pray that every area that chooses to open back up for business does so carefully and effectively. We need the production. We need the economy. We need the food. We need everything that feeds billions of people on this planet getting back up to speed, and soon, or hunger and starvation this winter could kill far more than we have lost in this Second Wave of the Wuhan Virus.

Probably not many Americans. I’m certain will we move heaven and hell to feed our people. But the Africans? The Tibetans? The disadvantaged, the war wracked, and the poor all across the globe? If the economy that feeds billions is unable to harvest enough food to feed all those billions this winter, it will be those people, mostly safe beyond our borders where we will be able to ignore them, who will die.

We are in the Second Wave right now. Thousands have died all over the world. We have to mind the Hunger Wave now. It could kill millions.