By JOSH RESNEK
For now, Everett and Massachusetts in general are in a safe zone.
Everett’s numbers have been falling for weeks, although there are new cases, but they are very few – and deaths as well.
ICU’s in Massachusetts are not filled, and hospitals have returned to a semblance of normal.
More than 9,000 residents of Massachusetts and about 35 from Everett have succumbed to the virus, which is now spreading like wildfire in our largest and most populace states.
The numbers in California, Arizona, Florida, and Texas have grown so large so fast, that the hospital systems of all those states are now under strain. In California, hospitals are under siege.
Epidemiologists are predicting a near catastrophe in the next 3 weeks unless the virus is tamped down.
Also, because Americans are traveling all over the nation by air – not in great numbers – but enough to spread the virus everywhere, there is the general belief the virus cannot and will not be stopped.
Younger people not wishing to wear masks, and older people more concerned about their personal freedom than their health and wellbeing, are contributing to the coming disaster.
Younger people congregating are now getting the virus in huge numbers. They go home to their parents and spread it to them. Their parents then spread it to their parents – and whenever they go out unprotected, they spread the virus elsewhere.
In the four aforementioned states new shutdowns and the reimposition of restrictions and more strict social distancing and hygiene requirements are being put back in place to try to save the day. Massachusetts is one of four states that has beat the curve, defeated the virus – although it still roams among us.
The fear here is that when summer turns to fall, a second wave of the virus, which is expected, will cause a massive disruption.
Massachusetts cannot stop the spread of the virus from people coming in from outside our state.
No state can do this.
The virus running rampant in our most populated states is a clear and present danger to all our well-being.
Caution should remain the mantra of the day for all of us.
Caution and praying for a vaccine, quickly