Everett’s first responders, its police officers and firefighters and its Cataldo Ambulance service EMT’s are the first line of defense for residents and businesspeople terrorized about the coronavirus epidemic.
Very few of us can imagine the pressure felt by first responders who are more likely catch the virus than any of us.
Each time they answer the call, the chance for infection from the virus stalks them like a Grim Reaper.
They don’t have themselves only to think about. They have their wives and their children, their parents and brothers and sisters.
The virus is sinister in its ability to take someone very healthy and strong and in a matter of a few days, reduce them to a state of horrific illness, on to ventilators when they can’t breath, and finally to the funeral home shortly after that.
Many point out that the death rate isn’t so high.
The experts say you have a two in ten chance of dying which means you have a 80% chance of recovering.
These are good odds, unless you are a first responder.
The president has said 100,000 deaths from the virus would be a good figure.
It is not a good figure if you are one of those who die.
The president did not mean 100,000 deaths is good.
He meant it is far better than 1 million deaths or any number less than that.
