This is war: We can only defeat coronavirus if we do it together

My father planned a medical career when the US entered World War II after Pearl Harbor. Then, like sixteen million other Americans, he enlisted in the armed forces. He fought the Japanese in the South Pacific and never resumed his medical plans.

Dad experienced horrific atrocities during the war, but he never considered his service a sacrifice. Like his fellow Americans, he felt that he should do whatever he could to help win the war. 

The coronavirus pandemic is the war of our time, a fact President Trump noted in his press conference yesterday. 

My purpose in today’s Daily Article is not to frighten you, but to alert you to the potential severity of this disease so as to encourage us all to do what all of us can and must do in response. To that end, consider the following. 

COVID-19 could kill more Americans than World War II 

According to estimates based on CDC scenarios, between 160 million and 214 million people in the US could become infected over the course of the disease. As many as 200,000 to 1.7 million Americans could die. For perspective, 405,000 Americans died in World War II. 

In addition, 2.4 million to 21 million of us could require hospitalization, potentially crushing our medical system, which has only about 925,000 staffed hospital beds. Fewer than one-tenth are for people who are critically ill. This medical crisis is what is happening right now in Italy, where one doctor says “we are in the thick of tragedy.” It could happen here.

Here’s the good news: these projections do not have to become reality in America. But they will if we do not take the necessary steps to stop the spread of the virus now. That’s why officials are closing schools, restaurants, and offices. It’s why church services have moved online and sports leagues have been suspended. 

And it’s…