Pyrrhic Victory

    The expression Pyrrhic victory is a reference to a king who had so many casualties defeating the Romans that his win was essentially a loss. That is what has comes to mind in the Covid 19 pandemic. That the actual losses were much lower than predicted is no surprise because we had little data to begin with. China has never been known for its candor. Likewise South Korea. The next data came from Italy which quickly became a hot spot, both because social distancing is not the Italian way and socialized medicine is not an effective means. Expecting the worst, America closed businesses, schools, arenas and churches. Everyone was sent home for healthy behavior. But as the weeks have gone by, except for hot spots in a few bigger cities, the actual rate of spread and death is drastically lower than the computer models predicted. Computer models are only as accurate as the data input and the data was skewed. But instead of saying, "We were wrong", our leaders are saying, "Staying home worked". But it doesn't work unless Americans can get back to work.
     If the actual number of infected matched the predictions, most people would, even now, be hunkered at home. But they have not, and the natives are getting restless. Our hospital, like many others, emptied itself for the influx of Covid patients--which did not happen. Most of the infected are sent home to quarantine. Meanwhile the empty hospital has furloughed 600 employees, and nurses like my son and his wife keep having their shifts cancelled. KRMC has lost $16 million from the shut down and probably (privacy precludes finding out) had less than five Covid patients. Some union nurses even stood on the hospital lawn holding signs about personal protective equipment shortages which, they admitted, has not been a problem here, because you only need PPE if you have patients. My church even prepared a basket of snacks--granola bars, tea bags, gum, etc. for hospital workers on the front lines, as if they were pulling double shifts of hazardous duty. I declined to participate. What our nurses need most right now are paying shifts. Then they can earn money to buy their own granola bars. For the sake of treating Covid, we are bankrupting the treatment facilities for that and any other medical problem.
     Killing the economy and shutting our hospitals to defeat this virus is a Pyrrhic victory. Instead of flattening the curve, we are digging a Depression.