12 APRIL 9, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Public patience will help defeat COVID-19
Are we near the apex yet of the
coronavirus crisis in New
York? So it seems, according
to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
He pointed to a number of developments
in recent days that would
seem to indicate the curve is fi nally
starting to fl atten.
April 4 marked the fi rst time in
four weeks that there was a decline
in coronavirus-related deaths in the
Empire State. Hospital discharges are
increasing, but the hospitals are still
at or near capacity statewide.
“For all those people who look at
the data, you have all these projection
models, and what’s infuriating
to me is that the models have been so
diff erent that it’s very hard to plan
when these models shift all the time,”
Cuomo said.
We imagine most of us share the
frustration. We’ve been hearing
about the apex of the crisis coming
soon. We’ve seen the steady, precipitous
rise in coronavirus cases
and related deaths in recent weeks.
We’ve heard horror stories and seen
terrifying images coming from our
hospitals of overwhelmed staff and
EDITORIAL
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Queens pedestrians practice social distancing. Photo by Dominick Totino Photography
patients dying lonely, terrible deaths
in intensive care wards.
Every New Yorker has been hoping
and praying this crisis would swift ly
pass us, while also coping with the
reality that it will not. And even if
we hit the apex this week, at long
last, we’re still a long, long way from
returning to normalcy.
We don’t know for a fact if coronavirus
cases will drop all the way
down or if it will plateau at a certain
level. But when the news takes an
optimistic turn, we would be wise not
to jump into a quick return to normal
life — tempting as that sounds to all
of us now.
For one thing, we still don’t have
a coronavirus vaccine, nor a proven
treatment of the illness. Research
and medical trials are underway.
We likely won’t have a real cure for
coronavirus for months, so the risk
will still be there — and so we must
continue to take precautions.
That means we’re still going to have
to practice social distancing and control
public gatherings for a while.
The restrictions in place, we
imagine, will eventually ease in
time. But rushing to drop all of it
once the infection rates plummet
would be a huge mistake that puts
lives at stake.
Hang in there, New York City. Let’s
not tempt fate.
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