By JOSH RESNEK
With the presidential election overshadowing just about everything in the news, the Coronavirus has come to the fore once again as the biggest problem the United States, and much of the world, are facing.
Figures in Everett reveal that new cases doubled in the past week alone. And the case numbers are rising precipitously daily, according to the State Department of Public Health.
In Everett, there 100 new cases in four days as opposed to 100 cases all last week.
Sunday and Monday alone produced 40 new cases.
In the short term, all of this will be exacerbated locally and nationally by flu cases, which naturally fill hospitals and bog down the national health care system during the winter months.
Those who believe the virus is the flu do not seem to understand that one without the other might be possible to treat.
Both at once, and we are a society in trouble.
Across the nation, new cases of the virus have soared to 80,000 cases a day, a situation believed by epidemiologists as an out of control runaway.
Deaths have been running at 1,000 a day and are expected to rise to many thou- sands a day by December.
The national total is nearing 250,000 deaths.
No matter who wins the election, Trump or Biden, the nation faces serious and potentially dire consequences as a result of the spread of the virus.
With the virus running amok, everything is affected schools, hospitals, public transportation, business, travel, the economy at large and financial markets.
Although death numbers are not as high as they were in the spring, they shortly will be setting new records because of the lag in the reporting of new virus infections generally followed by a proportional number of in- creased deaths.
Despite the use of advanced and enhanced therapeutics for those who come down with the virus, hospitals are now filling again.
In a dozen states where face masks are not worn among the population, the explosion of new cases has overwhelmed local hospitals.
Experts all agree what is at stake here whether or not you believe in the virus being deadly or not is that when the hospital beds are filled with COVID patients, this signals the disruption of healthcare for all others who will be shut out of hospitals dealing with the virus, and this will include the flu.
As the virus rages, there is only one alternative – don’t get sick.
That’s the nation’s prob- lem.
It is a problem in Europe where England has just closed down its nation a second time, and in France where the same has been done.
Peculiarly in China, the origin of the virus is almost virus free if you can believe the government there.
Here in Everett, a great deal of the population continues to be cavalier about wearing facemasks and following CDC instructions.
With new infections spiking, and Everett on the red list of dangerous communities, the message from city hall must be enhanced and increased that we all face a serious crisis.
The crisis is worsening.