What Am I Missing?

For a moment this spring, I thought we were living in the right spot to get through this crisis safely. Carteret County, a relatively isolated coastal county with sixty-two percent water, went through a period of nineteen days, from May 15, until June 2, when our virus cases held steady at thirty-five. The early part of those nineteen days happened to coincide with a period when our beaches were closed. Parking for the beaches and rental of beach houses had also been shut down.

Then came Memorial Day, the potential financial losses of a missed tourist season were too much. The beaches, parking and rental homes were all opened to the public. On June 3rd, nine days after the Memorial Day opening, cases started rising in our county. Now a little over eight weeks later on July 24, the cases in Carteret County are at 189, over five times the thirty-five cases we were showing on June 2.

Results seen by both Canada and New Zealand would strongly suggest that stopping domestic travel has a huge impact on the spread of coronavirus. Both countries have the coronavirus nearly under control. Canada has only recently allowed travel between provinces.

Because of our political divisions there is little hope of getting 60% of our citizens to wear masks consistently. Masks alone might save us but getting everyone to wear one is problematic.

We also have no safety net for the workers who are keeping our essential services going. Many are already without healthcare. Congress might help with some more money but expanding healthcare is not on their radar.

North Carolina has been unable to expand Medicaid. The thirteen states which have not expanded Medicaid map pretty closely to current virus hotspots.

So what should we do? Summer is at its peak but a month from now, we will be at some sort of back to school whether it is online, in the classroom or some combination of the two. Travel naturally slows down then. Maybe we should close tourist attractions and beaches a little early this year. Being out of doors on the beach can be one of the safer things to do, but people who come to the beach and other attractions invariably have to eat and do other things which might not be as safe. Do we really want a Labor Day spike in new coronavirus cases when we still do not have the Memorial Day spike under control?

Yes, it would be an economic hit but haven’t we figured out that there are two choices, take some serious economic pain over a short time or die a slow death of economic pain stretched over months or even years.

States should be divided into zones where coronavirus cases growth rates are similar. We are already facing most southern states needing to quarantine when visiting some northern states. US travelers are banned from much of the globe. Why not protect the places in the United States where there are few or a falling number of cases. Allow travel within those regions. Allow essential travel but give up those fall vacations or family get togethers now so that we can all get together at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Next, states that haven’t expanded Medicaid need to expand it now. It is going to be nearly impossible to get the coronavirus under control with a significant portion of the population unable to access healthcare until they are at death’s doorstep.

If we do not change what we are doing now, it is unlikely things are going to get better. What can we do personally? Donate to food banks and create political pressure to act now. Call your representatives tell them Medicaid expansion will help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

David Sobotta is a vice president at WideOpen Networks. He lived in Canada for sixteen years and has traveled widely including in New Zealand. He lives in the area known as the Crystal Coast near Swansboro, NC. He has written extensively about North Carolina, its coast, the Canadian Maritimes, and about his career at Apple.