Too Soon to Reopen When Every Day is a Holiday
On April 25th, Dan, a caller from St. Petersburg, Florida, says it’s too soon to reopen in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is too soon. Our governor here blew it, big time.”
“We have never actually practiced here, as far as I can see, ‘stay at home’. Walmart looks like a Petri dish, and so do most of the major areas for food.”
Minutes later, Tracy from Pontiac, Michigan shares Dan’s discontent. “It’s way too soon.”
“This is life or death we’re talking about. This ain’t the common cold. This is something you can die from.”
“All these scientists, they know what’s really, really going on. They’ve told people, and explained to people what’s going on, and nobody is listening to them. They’re put aside, just like with climate change.”
“You need to stay home. You have to stay home to save your life.”
Still within the first hour of Washington Journal, Rob, a caller from Port Crane, New York, says “It’s way too soon.”
“I find this whole thing just disgusting, that the Democrats and Nancy Pelosi, who dragged their feet for weeks, trying to get us any relief at all. That $1200 they gave people, most people took that check, signed the back of the damn thing and handed it over to their landlords.”
The caller then commented on our public discourse, asserting that we need to take a closer look at “the stuff that was going on before…the Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers, the Afghanistan Papers. You don’t hear any of this stuff anymore.”
The host then asked the caller what part of New York the town of Port Crane was located in, returning the conversation to the infections in New York, and how the pandemic is being handled.
“I see a lot of people out, they’re not social distancing. My neighbors are out here cutting trees every weekend. They got their relatives in and they’re treating it just like it’s a holiday everyday of the week. None of them are social distancing.”
“This is the world we live in. No matter what you say, there’s always gonna be somebody who’s gonna go against common sense.”
On the same day, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette published an article titled “Despite Pennsylvania’s stay-at-home order, COVID-19 continues to spread. Why?” The conclusion of Pennsylvania’s Health Department Secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, is that the necessity of essential workers showing up to their workplaces, plus the need for medical supplies and food, which forces people to leave their homes, is driving the spread. True as that is, not once does the secretary or the article suggest what Dan from St. Petersburg, Tracy from Pontiac and Rob from Port Crane complained about on this morning’s Washington Journal.
