Testing your level of knowledge, your proficiency, or lack thereof, within a certain area of knowledge is usually dependent upon what score you get on the test. If you cannot test your level of knowledge, how do you KNOW that you actually know what you are supposed to know? Testing is a common practice across disciplines, across academic levels, across levels and stations within business, government, and public sector jobs and organizations. Everyone gains a certain level of security and confidence upon passing the TEST. Doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers are all subject to a certification from state boards upon passing their respective tests in order to be licensed within specific areas of practice and to be allowed to exercise their expertise on the public.
So, WHY is the United States so far behind many places in the world when it comes to testing for Covid-19? Why are the majority of Governors complaining that they do not have the ability or capacity for the amount of testing that needs to be done in order to get an accurate count as to how many people, showing NO symptoms, are actually infected? How many people have been infected and have recovered? And what citizens, who may be exhibiting milder symptoms and/or medical complications, actually test positive for the Coronavirus? The United States of America has to date tested less than 2% of the population. That literally means that 98% of the U.S. population is walking around with no idea whether they are carriers of the virus, actually sick with the virus, or virus free. Why?
There is a catch-22 of testing for Covid-19. When we test, we find out that we have severely under-estimated the number of people infected with this extremely contagious virus. As we look to our nation’s leadership, as Americans do in times of national emergency, it appears that our federal government is simply willing to keep us all in the dark. Unfortunately, the old idioms “Ignorance is bliss” or “What you don’t know can’t hurt you” are both deadly approaches to a global pandemic. In fact, it is imperative that we gain as much knowledge as possible in order to effectively combat this infectious disease. What we don’t know will most certainly KILL US!
Our first responders go full frontal assault into the face of Covid-19! These women and men put themselves and their bodies on the line every day when they walk or run into homes, businesses, public and private places, streets, and alleys to respond to the call for help. “911 What’s your emergency?” They come to the rescue fully knowing that, in the middle of a pandemic, the call most probably means that they are going to be exposed and at risk for contracting the deadly virus from the person(s) they are trying to help, and/or they are in danger of carrying it home to their loved ones when they leave work.
More than running into burning buildings, confronting domestic violence, attending to victims of car crashes or bloody accidental shootings or malicious attacks, our firefighters, EMTs and frontline healthcare professionals are at high risk of becoming victims of the very virus they are fighting to contain. And, yet, their ability to protect themselves with the proper protective equipment and adequate TESTING has been severely hampered by a federal response to this national emergency that has been scattered, inept and dangerous.
The hope that it will just “disappear” due to warmer weather, or just the “magical thinking” that we are the United States of America, the greatest nation on the planet, and we are going to be alright, have resulted in over 1,000,000 Americans sick with the Coronavirus and over 55,000 Americans dead. And we must acknowledge that because we’ve only tested LESS than 2% of our total population, those numbers will definitely increase exponentially.
This country better immediately begin a comprehensive plan for universal TESTING so we can assess where we Actually are in the life of this pandemic and NOT where we WISH we were! How can we pass the course without taking the test? Until we can TEST/Trace/Track and TREAT this horrible virus, we are NOT ready to open this country back up!
