“In 1912, Titanic received 6 iceberg warnings from other ships. Despite these warnings, the ship’s captain maintained the ship at the near max speed. And we all know what happened next.”

1/

“When they spotted an iceberg, they tried to turn the ship as fast as it could. But a ship as large as Titanic can’t stop or steer sharply immediately. It can only turn and stop slowly.”

2/

“More than 1,500 passengers on board died. And as we watched the movie Titanic, we wondered how stupid they could have been to ignore all those warnings and let all those people die.”

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“COVID-19 in the US is today’s Titanic, except that it is already nearly 100 times worse in its human toll, and it’s about to get much worse.”

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“And we had so many warnings of how bad it can get, from Spain and Italy to New York and New Jersey, yet we ignored these warnings because we just couldn’t see any iceberg directly in front of us.”

5/

“When these icebergs show up in the form of new outbreaks across multiple states, like Titanic, our COVID-19 pandemic, being a huge beast, cannot be steered or stopped with a moment’s notice.”

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“A policy (including a stay at home order) doesn’t immediately translate to everyone hunkering down at home all at once. It certainly doesn’t stop people who just got infected from getting sick.”

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“And as it takes time for a ship to sink after getting hit by an iceberg, there is a significant lag between a surge in new cases and a spike in death.”

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“So as I am watching the daily new cases pass 50,000 on a curve that looks like the start of another exponential run, I am enraged and incredulous, but..”

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“..most importantly concerned about fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, and human beings with decades of joy, sadness, struggles, and experiences who will be taken by this virus all because of our collective stupidity.”

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“And I’m writing this long diatribe at an outdoor COVID-19 clinic because the demand of testing has spiked to more 200 a day from the nadir of 20. They asked for volunteers to see these additional patients coming in with cough, fever, and shortness of breath.”

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“And many tell a familiar story. ‘I was being so good, and then I started going out and there was this gathering where no one was wearing a mask...’”

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“And as I put a swab in their noses, I can’t help but think back to my days in Queens where patients struggling to breathe packed into every corner of the room, and health care workers were scared and exhausted.”

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“In absence of capabilities to contact trace and quarantine, more human interactions indoors and/or without masks will lead to a spike in infections and new outbreaks, which inevitably lead to thousands of people dying.”

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“This is the simple truth that we have known for 6 months now, the simple truth that we try to debate, deny, or disbelieve.”

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“Perhaps seeing really will be believing. When hospitals across the country are filled with COVID-19 patients and nearly everyone knows someone who has been sick with COVID-19 or has died from it..”

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“..maybe then this tragic stupidity will end and we all will take this pandemic seriously, and maybe control it before the death toll reaches millions.”

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“For the time being we as a nation is crashing into icebergs of COVID19 on a daily basis at a massive scale. And some politicians are “thinking about” slowing the ship, again not realizing that this ship can’t turn or stop quickly.”

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“As the result it will be inevitable that we will see 2,000+ patients (more than the number of the Titanic victim) die EVERY day from this virus very soon.”

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“In the meantime, please consider this as yet another warning. Wear a mask in public. And for the upcoming Fourth of July, don’t even think about going to a party without social distancing or mask requirement.”

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A powerful reflection by @jasonwbae on the failures of managing the Covid-19 pandemic as nation. The sheer anger, frustrations, and helplessness that he feels as watch the virus tear through our society. Our country made this decision. The consequences are coming and we are blind