×

Testing, treatment top priorities

I am disgusted and disappointed that people have gathered in the streets of several state capitols now, protesting measures to control the spread of the COVID virus.

The majority of this country is working hard for its own health safety, knowing how interconnected we have all become through travel, commerce, families, jobs and a host of other things. The actions of these protesters are dangerous and pointless.

Do they really think the rest of us don’t understand the ramifications of “orders” that curtail our daily freedoms? Or restrictions that blast the livelihoods of many into smithereens?

Of course we do. The rest of us don’t want to do this self-quarantine stuff any more than the protesters do.

But I am among those who believe that we’ve got to get testing and treatment capabilities under control before we do anything substantially different than what we’re doing now. (Thank you, Dr. Fauci and others with pandemic expertise, for pounding home this point.)

We must ditch the conspiracy theories, the divisive politics, the dangerous crowd protests, and the self-righteous anger we have at somebody else daring to tell us what to do.

And we’re putting the cart before the horse if we spend our time sending out announcements about the reopening celebration before we find out if we can even get any pizza and beer to feed the hungry guests.

We need to spend our next moments of action asking every government official who represents us — asking over and over until we have answers we understand — what is the timeline on having adequate testing in our area, state and region? Who are the people making the decisions as to what is adequate? Is adequate testing enough to help track and isolate future cases, and prevent reinfection before a vaccine is ready?

To rework a phrase we’ve all heard during difficult times in our past:

It’s the testing, stupid!

Nancy Taylor

Parkersburg

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today