The importance of putting America on lockdown

By Dr. Veita Bland

The Coronavirus continues to wreak havoc with America’s healthcare. Due to the fact that the Coronavirus, continues to spread rapidly the government has made sweeping restrictive recommendations that severely limit physical movement of the public. This restrictive movement is to decrease the spread of the virus.

Many people have not taken these recommendations seriously. There is a lack in understanding how infective the virus is and how limiting physical exposure is the main key. These recommendations have been placed in effect for the next two weeks. The country is in essence on lockdown.

Many feel that the millennials are the key. Being mobile and active as most young people are, they may have the virus in its milder forms with little to no illness. This does not though prevent them from spreading the virus to others. This spread is especially so for the elderly and those with illnesses. The thought to just shut them and their movements down is in hope of slowing the advancement of the virus.

Because we do not have the ability to test all that we would like limits our ability to diagnose those with the disease. Having a proper diagnosis is important to determining how to properly treat a person. We currently do not have broad, comprehensive ability to do this, which severely handicaps us in the medical community. The importance of testing ability is more critical in the early stages of a pandemic for its ability to separate those infected. There comes a time when that ability to diagnose loses its ability to help as much and we are rapidly approaching this stage. The physical affects of the shutdown are beginning to affect our ability to feed some of our children. This is especially so for those receiving free meals in schools. The Greensboro community and our public school system are making tremendous efforts to help remedy this situation.

The unintentional effect of this pandemic has been a generation of fear in the public and has led to behaviors of hoarding food, cleaning products and sanitizers. These actions are the result of not having a clear understanding of the situation that is causing problems. We have been assured that we have more than enough products for all.

The behavior of this virus is unknown. We traditionally think of a virus trailing away as the warmer climate comes in. This has not been the fate of this virus so far. We are seeing this virus present in epidemic strength in areas of the world that have now entered into their warmer months of the year.

Again, we know that we should stay home for the next two weeks. We are asked to limit our gathering to 10 people or less. We are asked to stop gathering in groups.

We are seeing that in some countries such as Japan where these restrictive measures have been put in place there is a definite decrease in the number of people diagnosed with the Coronavirus. Remember that we are trying to come up with a vaccine. Clinical trials for these vaccines have already begun but this is a process which may take 12 to 18 months.

Medications for the Coronavirus are already in the works. One is an old medication used for the Ebola virus. Again, we are early in this process but hope is seen.

Please follow the recommendations of staying home for the next two weeks. It could be the difference between life and death for others.

Dr. Veita Bland is a board-certified Greensboro physician and hypertension specialist. Dr. Bland’s radio show, “It’s a Matter of Your Health,” can be heard live on Wednesdays, 5:30 p.m. on N.C. A&T State University’s WNAA, 90.1 FM. Listeners may call in and ask questions. The show is replayed on Sirius 142 at 5 p.m. on Wed. Email Dr. Bland at ideas@blandclinicpa.com.