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Wednesday, April 22, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Editorial…
Pivoting toward
recovery
Ramp up COVID-19 testing
Testing is the key to getting America
working and living again in the wake of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Every responsible roadmap to opening
up the country places as its topline require-
ment <the ability to monitor and protect our
communities through testing, contact tracing,
isolating, and supporting those who are posi-
tive or exposed,= as California puts it 4 and
Oregon and Washington are aligned with that
approach.
Though more extensive testing capability
is coming online, it9s not happening quickly
or extensively enough. America needs a major
wartime effort to get this done NOW.
We used to be really good at this sort of
thing. Need thousands of B-17 bombers and
Sherman tanks to crush the Third Reich? It9s
on. Full court press. We have the capacity to
do the same with COVID-19 testing 4 all we
need is clear direction and a focused effort of
will, starting at the top.
Contact Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron
Wyden and Rep. Greg Walden and let them
know that there is no higher priority than
placing fully adequate testing capability in
the hands of healthcare providers across the
fruited plain. Contact the White House and
demand action.
A little of that gung-ho all-the-way-to-
Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
victory spirit of yore would be most welcome
right now.
We can do it!
Jim Cornelius, Editor-in-Chief
Letters to the Editor…
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To the Editor:
I would like to take a moment to thank
you all as a community for the love and sup-
port you9ve given to the Health Care system
during this COVID-19 time.
As an ICU RN I find myself overwhelmed
with appreciation and joy from all the support
through donations, thoughts, letters, masks,
prayers and just your smiles. It truly brings us
peace and strength as we walk in to do what
we are all honored to do.
I hear often how thankful we are as
See LETTERS on page 11
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West Coast states have
agreed on a pact for a
consistent, coordinated
approach to pivot away
from locking down to <flat-
ten the curve= and toward
recovering our economic
and cultural life. This is
good news. Central Oregon
should craft a coordinated
recovery plan as well.
For life cannot indefi-
nitely be decoupled from
making a living.
I am at pains to make
myself clear here: I take
this virus very seriously.
I do not want to get it; I
dread the very thought of
my loved ones getting sick;
and I understand the neces-
sity of flattening the curve
to stave off a collapse of
red-zone health care sys-
tems. The world is in a ter-
rible fix, with no good or
easy options.
But we must recognize
that the social treatment for
this pandemic is toxic.
For, make no mistake,
the economic fallout of this
pandemic will blight and
shorten lives as surely 4
albeit less dramatically 4
as shredded lungs. And the
longer the near-shutdown
continues, the deeper and
more pervasive the damage
will be.
We in the West have lost
our understanding of the
connection between liveli-
hood and life. We are so
incomprehensibly wealthy
and have been so secure for
so long in our wealth and
comfort, that we no longer
recognize the wolf when he
comes to the door.
The wolf is about to
make its presence known.
At some point we will
have to move past this
moment9s stasis. And that
movement will entail risk
and sacrifice.
Wo r l d
Health
Organization (WHO) spe-
cial envoy David Nabarro
said recently:
<We think it is going to
be a virus that stalks the
human race for quite a long
time to come until we can
all have a vaccine that will
protect us and that there
will be small outbreaks that
will emerge sporadically
and they will break through
our defenses.=
And what if we can9t
develop a vaccine in short
order? That9s a real pos-
sibility, one that our pill-
for-every-ill mindset can
scarcely comprehend and
instinctively recoils against.
Coronaviruses are not easy
to vaccinate against, and
we cannot count on swiftly
conjuring one to save us.
We9re going to have to learn
to live with COVID-19.
We will not return
quickly to pre-COVID
normal 4 not until herd
immunity reduces its viru-
lence and we have a test-
ing program that can gauge
how pervasive the illness
actually is. We must con-
tinue to isolate and protect
the vulnerable to the degree
possible. We must adapt
our way of living and take
ongoing personal precau-
tions, including modifying
social interaction.
But we must venture
forth and live and work
again.
Western culture has
become so imbued with
the myth of zero-defect and
absolute safety that it will
require a massive cultural
shift to accept that we actu-
ally must live with risk and
danger. The notion that any
measure is morally impera-
tive <if it saves just one
life= will crumble in the
face of a brutal reeduca-
tion in what is actually fea-
sible in a world of limited
resources.
Indian economist
Sanjeev Sabhlok wrote
in The Times of India on
April 11:
<Most nations are behav-
ing like ostriches with their
head buried in sand 3 with
febrile dreams about vac-
cines and treatments. They
want to keep their society
in suspended animation
while reducing the loss of
life from the virus. They
are oblivious to the incom-
prehensible cost their soci-
ety will pay for indefinite
lockdowns. Steve Kates,
an economist I admire, has
estimated that the cost to
society of saving a life in
extreme, extended lock-
downs could be in the range
of $300 million. Good luck
to Western nations with
that.=
And, of course, Sabhlok
recognizes that his own
nation can9t even pretend
to think that such a commit-
ment is possible. Those who
are living closer to the bone
than Westerners have lived
for generations understand
something that we must re-
learn. Some things can9t be
fixed; the best we can do is
mitigate 4 and learn to live
again, as our ancestors did,
in the valley of the shadow
of death.