Life in the Time of Coronavirus COVID-19: A Message to My Conservative Friends

Map showing active cases of COVID-19 throughout the world as of 6:33 AM Eastern Daylight Time. Credit: Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

An open message to my conservative friends (those who will listen to reason, anyway):

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has hit our shores. As of this morning, there are 4,661 confirmed cases in the United States. 85 persons have died; 17 have recovered. The others are still sick. And, as more tests become available to healthcare workers, the number of COVID-19 patients will increase exponentially. So will the deaths. This is not alarmism; this is the reality of how viral diseases spread.

I don't make it a habit of visiting my Trump-supporting friends' social media pages, but (at least on Facebook) my newsfeed often shows me posts from my conservative friends' timelines and comments from posts. The least offensive and relatively harmless posts are ones that are of a religious nature; I'm not religious myself even though I was raised as a Catholic, but I respect others' spiritual/religious beliefs. So if asking for divine assistance or deriving inner strength from prayer to face a crisis helps people get through these dark times, I'm all for it.

Where I draw the line, though, is when I see comments such as:

If we have ~56,000 people die a year from the flu / flu like symptoms According to the CDC why is it that the W.H.O. Does not Declare this a pandemic? Just asking and questioning?

The most important thing to remember is the media is using panic...” FOR EVERYTHING

Question: When will all these contagious viruses stop coming from China?

Answer: When the Chinese stop eating bats and other weird animals.

Solution: Don't travel to China...EVER.

One reason I have no plans to go to China or anywhere in the vicinity in this lifetime.

Comments like this are not helpful. False comparisons, blaming the media (and ironically doing so on social media) and xenophobic rhetoric based on misinformation and plain old-fashioned lies is not the way to go.

Message to Conservatives

To my conservative friends:

Please refrain from:

1. Being xenophobic

2. Saying that liberals "are happy about the virus because it hurts the President's chances of being re-elected."

3. Blaming the media

4. Blaming China.

5. Saying that COVID-19 is not as bad as the flu

6. Blaming Democrats

7. Spreading false information about COVID-19 on Facebook or social media

8. Playing the "proud individualist." If you are going to "carry on as usual" because (as #CoronaKatie says) this is America and go to restaurants and whatnot, do not brag about it on social media

9. Passing on memes with false claims about what "MSM" said about Trump or the COVID-19 coronavirus

10. Saying, "It's all a hoax." Even Trump doesn't say that anymore

And for all of those of you who replied to our criticisms of the President with airy retorts of "My 401K is doing so much better..." don't say we didn't warn you. Cos we did.