It’s time we face the facts here: the coronavirus is not going away anytime soon. Since it first surfaced in Wuhan, China in December last year, it has gone on to infect over 308,000 people across the globe, killing over 13,000 of them. And since it has come to America earlier this year, the United States went from having less than 10 cases in January to now over 26,000 cases this month. For those of you not keeping up with the math, that’s faster than even Italy’s growth rate.
What does that mean for us? I’m not exactly sure. Since earlier this month, the coronavirus seemed like an afterthought, a distant threat that was impacting other countries but mostly remained separate from ours. Now it’s reshaped almost everything in our everyday life, from working from home to delayed movie releases to even shopping for groceries. Just a few weeks ago, my biggest frustration with the coronavirus was how it delayed upcoming movie releases such as James Bond’s No Time To Die and A Quiet Place Part II until the fall. Now my biggest fear is contracting the virus myself, or even worse, spreading it to somebody else.
There are some positives to glean from this. For one thing, the majority of people who contract the coronavirus only suffer from mild symptoms, with 81% of victims eventually recovering from the disease, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It still remains to be one of the low-risk diseases globally, with the SARS and MERS epidemics killing between 10-30% of its infected, both significantly higher than the coronavirus’ 4% fatality rate. And numerically, it is still one of the less deadly diseases, with thousands of people dying daily from both AIDS and the seasonal flu, whereas on the coronavirus’ worse day it hasn’t even topped a thousand yet.
So in terms of globally and nationally, the coronavirus is still relatively low-risk. But I don’t want to shortchange this threat. The most concerning thing about it, of course, is that it’s asymptomatic, which means you could have it and not even know it. This doesn’t mean much to you, of course, but it could jump from you and infect somebody close to you that is more vulnerable to the disease than you are, such as the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions.
We’re also not prepared if this outbreak grows to exceed Italy’s numbers, as hospital beds, respirators, and ventilators are overwhelmingly short on supply. This is before you even get into the fact that we’re working with incomplete numbers since testing for the disease is even more scarce than hospitality availability. And don’t even get me started on the ramifications of President Trump’s decision to fire the pandemic response team in 2018.
This is all before you even get into the economic impact of the coronavirus. Since the virus has broken out, many local governments and municipalities have forced local businesses, shops, stores, gyms, and hotels to close down, while limiting many restaurants to takeout and delivery only. This will leave a massive hole in both our local and national economies and most likely will lead to a recession and maybe even a depression. Many people are pushing for government bailouts, but that can only last for so long. It’s funny how those who were decrying the threats of socialism are now happily willing to accept it, so long as they get a paycheck from it.
Look, I don’t want to start a panic, but we also need to be practical at what we’re facing here. The fallout from the coronavirus will be significant. Whether it is in the form of further infections, massive unemployment, or social and economic collapse, the hammer will drop somewhere in some form as a result of this virus. In its best-case scenario, the coronavirus will inconvenience America – indeed, the whole world – for the next several months. At its worst, it will reshape our entire society as we know it.
Where does that leave us? For now, everyone needs to stock up, keep their heads down, and distance themselves from the rest of the outside world. That will be difficult for some extroverts that need human connection, while it will just be everyday life to some introverts like me. Regardless, limiting the spread of the virus is the best way to fight it at this moment. Even if the pandemic spreads into the coming months, it will at least be contained enough so hospitals will be able to treat patients without overwhelming the healthcare system.
As for myself, I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I publish on this website to bring you the most up-to-date information on new movies and theater releases, but since there won’t be many in the foreseeable future, that puts me into a bit of a pickle. Even if movies are still coming out like Wonder Woman 1984 is this summer, I doubt I would go to the movie theater to see them. That just wouldn’t be the smart or safe decision at this point.
No, instead I think I might focus more on recent releases I’ve missed reviewing, like Onward, The Invisible Man, and Sonic The Hedgehog. I’d also like to focus more on video work as well since I have yet to do my best and worst movies of the decade lists. Heck, I still want to review that disaster of a Cats movie that released that December. Did you know that there’s a cut of that movie out there where the cats’ buttholes were not digitally removed? I didn’t know it was possible to make that movie any more horrifying.
I’ll figure out what I’m going to do for this website in the coming weeks. But for now, stay home, keep yourselves healthy, and don’t unnecessarily put yourself at risk of the disease.
Stay safe out there, fellow movie lovers. I’ll let you know when my review of the butthole cut of Cats is coming out.
Love,
David
DAVID DUNN 