Let’s act sensibly to overcome pandemic

THE EDITOR: Viruses are older than human existence. In 1918 we had the Spanish Flu which infected 500 million and killed between 20 million and 50 million people.

We had the SARS outbreak of 2002-2004. It infected 8,098 and killed 774 people from China, other Asian countries, the UK and Canada.

In 2014 the Ebola outbreak killed 11,315 in five African countries and the US.

So why wasn’t the world prepared for the coronavirus? Maybe because it’s not profitable, they occurring more than a decade apart. But that can change.

For Caribbean countries it’s like a hurricane. It’s time of impact is uncertain but unpreparedness means death.

All countries – capitalist, socialist and communist – were unprepared. The US has more cases of covid19 than China, which is about four times the population of the US.

The worst prepared country is the US because it’s healthcare system is profit driven and the most expensive in the world. It is the only advanced nation that has such a system. Europe, the UK, Russia, China, Canada, Japan have healthcare systems that are government driven.

I don’t believe the shutting down of the economy will stop the spread of the virus. A lot of people are poor and cannot self-isolate. They must hustle food or they will die. I use South Korea as the model. It’s people are at work.

We need to test everyone and then quarantine the infected. Everyone must wear masks to work and practise proper hygiene. Take a lot of vitamin C from oranges etc. Let’s be sensible.

Every mouth must be fed. This current method will lead to social upheaval, like what is starting to occur in Italy – or worst.

BRIAN E PLUMMER

via e-mail