Letter to Editor | Science is our friend

— from Tom Eversole —

My public health coworkers used to quip that Primary Care was Public Health’s failure to prevent disease. Today, CDC fails us under a presidential choke hold, while the VP posits that free speech isn’t free if it comes through a mask.

The governors of FL, TX, and AZ support public health measures (masks, distance, test, trace and isolate) only since their primary care and emergency medical capacity is about to fail. It’s a bit like trying to put a mustang back in the barn by grabbing its tail as it bolts out the door.  I am grateful for good local leaders.

Some politicians protest that we can’t let the virus shut down the economy. That opportunity may have passed, as the real way to prevent closure was to slow spread of COVID-19, so we could successfully manage disease pending a vaccine.

The virus actually can shut down the economy without our approval– when there are not enough healthy farmers and grocers to supply food, drivers to deliver gasoline and medicines, technicians to keep up the electric grid (think ATMS, card readers, phone chargers, gas pumps, A/C), ferry crew, healthcare workers and first responders.

Binary political thinking often presents false choices, not viable solutions. America is at a “stop and think” moment, not a “stay the course” one. Doing more of what didn’t work won’t help now. To paraphrase a famous felon and TV celebrity (not #45, but Martha Stewart): “Science is a good thing. Science is our friend.”