The road back to normal

Well, this is the third week in a row that I have tried to write about something other than COVID-19. We could all use a break from it, but what else defines our times and occupies our discourse as much as a global Pandemic? It’s hard to top.

I am afraid that the toughest part of this journey is still ahead of us. Deciding when to begin returning to normal daily activities is going to be a very difficult call. We want to resume our lives. We want the economy to begin its return to normal, and if it were a question of merely putting ourselves at risk individually, I’m reasonably sure that half of us would be back at work tomorrow. Knowing that we can unintentionally imperil others, makes the matter much more complicated, so we stay at home. We wash our hands, and when required, we’ll wear our masks too.

It doesn’t help us to know that, in a gift to conspiracy theorists everywhere, the CDC has issued a reporting guideline to the medical community that leaves more than enough room for the overstatement of COVID-19 mortality statistics. In the CDC directive, “Guidance for Certifying Deaths Due to Coronavirus Disease 2019,” the instructions suggest that if the coronavirus is suspected, even when accompanied by one or more comorbidities (ie. heart disease, COPD, etc.), the underlying cause of death (UCOD) should be listed as COVID-19. The directive explains, “Ideally, testing for COVID–19 should be conducted, but it is acceptable to report COVID–19 on a death certificate without this confirmation if the circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty.”

While I would hate to dampen the spirits of my friends in the conspiracy crowd, let’s be fair. The CDC’s willingness to err on the side of an overstatement is more than defensible. It’s smart. They want to track the virus geographically, identify any outbreaks and if possible, assess the number of non-fatalities who are potentially exposed. The willingness to rely on conjecture in the absence of testing, unfortunately, has more to do with the unavailability of test kits experienced during the initial outbreak. Hopefully, we will soon be as overstocked on test kits as we are on ventilators.

At the same time, we also have reason to believe that the number of asymptomatic infections may be understated. As European countries proceed through the eye of the storm and continue testing, they are finding larger-than-expected numbers of people who test positive without having overt symptoms. The catch is that we don’t like many of the tests that they are using in Europe, so the jury is still out pending distribution of an antibody test that meets domestic standards. At last count, there were some 70 labs working on the development of such tests, and a select few are already undergoing trials under an Emergency Use Authorization issued early last week.

What I can predict with regrettable accuracy is that infections and fatalities will continue, hopefully to a far lesser degree, after we begin transitioning back to normal activities. It will be painful, but it is inevitable. There can be no perfect time to return to normality. We can only be thoughtful in the way that we do it. We will be cautious and deliberate, but we need to move toward our new normal, whatever that may be.

If the past is prologue, the same twenty-twenty-hindsight-gifted group of individuals who arm-chair quarterbacked us through the outset of this crisis will be equally unhelpful and disruptive during the recovery. I don’t fault those who are legitimately concerned about their friends and loved ones in the high-risk groups. It has been and will remain, a serious and scary situation. There are those, however, who will make a stink at every setback, every failed effort and miscalculation, not because of concern for friends and family, but out of spite and for political gain.

The late-night host Jay Leno had a fabulous gift that I am afraid I’ll never possess. When someone said something ridiculous, or annoying, or just wrong, Leno had the most charming way of saying, “shut up” that I’ve ever heard. It was nonthreatening; endearing; warm. He would just smile and say, “shut up.”

I don’t have that gift, but as we transition into this next phase, whenever that happens to be, I sincerely hope we can behave like adults. There will be setbacks, there will be recurrences and there will certainly be mistakes, but let’s work together. To those who can’t find it in themselves to be a part of the community and help us work for the best outcome, all I can say is please go on your way with our love and our blessings, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. That’s my “shut up.”