We Need a COVID-19 DEBATE: A Blue Collar View

Two “best of the best” experts with opposing opinions and three trustworthy moderators are needed immediately. We probably need to focus on at least two debate topics. Personal protection and “what is the real testing situation” are probably the two most important topics.

As we sit at home and maybe destroy our livelihood and economy, we need to restore trust in the “experts” we are forced to trust!

1. Too much talk of exciting testing and too little testing. Our “Testing Czar” needs to provide reports of false promises, where are the Abbott and other tests? We seem to need an accountability czar or a testing debate.
2. Too many political attacks and too few “expert” reports.
3. Common sense says; cover your face, experts say; collect data.
4. Common sense says; wind can carry droplets more than six feet and outside is probably more dangerous than inside. Experts should at least do a test!

The Abbott “ID NOW” testing machine is supposedly the most common molecular point-of-care machine used in doctor offices, urgent care and emergency room facilities. A five minute positive test and thirteen minute negative test is extremely important at point-of-care. Supposedly, 18,000 “ID NOW” testing machines are already at point-of-care locations. We need trustworthy information concerning when hundreds of thousands of these tests will begin. So far we are getting too much exciting misinformation and too little trustworthy information.

The popular media and others must put away their political smoke, mirrors and sensationalism. Both sides have lost the trust of many people. We need to focus on the “experts” misinformation and mistakes. We need to keep the excellent experts we have and reinforce their efforts. We can’t afford to dump, replace and start over. We need to assign at least one equally empowered expert to debate and back-up the over-worked experts we have. We need to restore trust!

Distancing and face covering are extremely important and debatable. Many “experts “preach six feet is plenty and many say twenty seven. Some believe in “wind carry”, a little extra protection, containment, more focus on details and some don’t. These extremely important details need to be properly debated.

Until recently, the two “top experts” and our Surgeon General said; public face covering wasn’t necessary and wasn’t recommended. Recently, proclaiming old information was new information, (they told us a month ago that asymptomatic people were spreading the virus, now, they say it’s a new discovery!). Until recently, many blue collar types, sitting at home, trusted the “top experts”.

Our top expert proclaimed that only a super sneeze could carry droplets more than six feet. As he spoke, he lost credibility and trust. Other top experts lost trust with false promises of “Abbott’s Rapid Test” and other testing that faded behind the creation of even more exciting things to come that never came.

We need a wind test. Speaking and breathing produces droplets. I hope the experts will do a wind test and collect their data. We need to focus on details.

Common sense seems to dictate face covering for the positive AND negative people. Cloth covering is much better than nothing and might be enough. We might have to start making our own polypropylene non-woven fabric 95% masks. Kits seem expensive and slow to ship. Meanwhile, polypropylene non-woven fabric is reasonable in price and seems to ship quickly. Eye glasses are probably much better than nothing at protecting the eyes. Safety goggles probably provide smart eye protection in windy situations.

Common sense will rule the day. It convinces people to trust or not trust “experts”. Now, with so much misinformation, we need debates to restore the public’s trust!