The various administrations in the United States at the federal, state and local levels have done their best to try and protect individuals and their broader community — that is why it is called “public health” and not individual health.
Many administrations have gotten lots of negative feedback on the measures that they imposed — shutdowns, mask wearing, schools closed, etc. — which some think of as draconian.
Then there is China, which has been in the news for months for its “zero case” strategy of locking people in their apartment buildings and implementing total city lockdowns. The comparison of measures is nowhere equal in any way.
People in the USA have protested their government’s actions and demonstrated in the streets, and no one has been taken away by the police and locked up for no cause, like carrying a bouquet of flowers. What you are seeing in China now is what totalitarianism looks like. Don’t equate measures here with that type of behavior.
That all being said, there are still 300-400 people dying every day from COVID-19. Someone recently told me that the cause of death is being labeled as COVID-19 because hospitals get more money if it is a COVID-19 death. I asked my own personal physician about that and he said it was hogwash. Hospitals don’t get more money for caring for someone with COVID-19 in their facility. Quash that rumor now!
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
