Pros and Con Artists: The True Cost of Covid 19

- The coronovirus. - The coronovirus.

COVID-19.

Coronavirus officially hitting the US.

The coronavirus on both coasts.

This virus does not respect borders.

What we've got here is

failure to communicate.

As the novel coronavirus made landfall

in the US,

an air of extreme uncertainty fell over the nation.

Despite spreading in China and Europe for several weeks,

the initial information surrounding COVID-19 was mixed.

When COVID struck, you know, we,

this was a

this was a big new thing.

We hadn't seen anything exactly like this

and it was crisis for all of us.

We didn't know what was coming.

We didn't know how bad it was going to be.

We'd all been trained, of course, in PPE, in isolation,

we do that every day in the hospital

with, you know, different patients,

TB and different infections

that we isolate patients for.

We were used to that,

but what we weren't used to was not knowing

how bad it was going to get,

or exactly what these patients were going to look like.

It was a new thing.

I found three weeks in that I felt so unsteady

and confused and I think everybody has.

And I think that's why a lot of people

don't take it seriously.

I think that's why a lot of people

are taking it way too seriously.

It's just really confusing for everyone.

So there's so much that we don't know still

about COVID in general.

Right now, the scientific community thinks

that for those aged 18 or so, and under,

the risk is much lower relative to people who are older.

In the spring and summer of 2020,

dozens of Georgia residents were interviewed

about COVID-19 shutdown policies.

Their backgrounds were as diverse as their opinions

but their experience made one thing very clear.

This wasn't just a story about Georgia.

What happened in your state happened everywhere.

You know, you hear the rhetoric from Republicans

is that it's

not more severe than the flu.

It's not going to harm people

as we initially thought it would.

And then when you talk to members in the democratic side,

it's very much based on science.

There are going to be millions of people dying.

And I don't think there's any way to get around that.

The immediate risk of this virus

to the American public remains low.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of three to 5%.

- .1% - About 3.4%

- Between two and 3%. - Down to 1%.

- Around 10%. - About .6%.

- Evolving situation. - Similar to the season flu.

This is not the common flu, severe influenza season.

10 times more than the seasonal flu.

And we know 80% of the population

is going to survive.

There's a lot of information

that is not what the people originally got.

And then the news constantly changes,

oh, it stays in the air.

Oh, it doesn't stay in there.

Oh, it's in your clothes.

Oh, it's not in your clothes.

Airborne transmission.

Doesn't fly around in the air.

- Sore throat. - Fever, cough.

Headache and shortness of breath.

An alternation in smell.

Is more like a slow burn.

The fear is gonna cause the damage,

not the virus.

From the beginning, battle lines were drawn

across political and ideological fronts.

As conflicting information arose,

society became further polarized.

There were mayors in different cities

or city managers in different cities

that assessed the threat of COVID-19 differently.

You know, when you got on those group calls,

some people took it very seriously

and some people in different communities,

different community leaders did not.

At this point, the pandemic has been politicized

so aggressively, so ferociously,

and I am fearful that this is because

it is an election year,

that it makes the stakes much higher.

It's become very hyper-partisaned.

And at the end of the day, it really should be

about what is in the best interest of all of our citizens.

And it's a tough situation for any elected official

to be in right now.

I believe that there are people in politics right now

that love their power and their position

more than they love this country.

And they're willing to do whatever it takes

to maintain that power,

if it means creating panic,

if it will help get the administration that's in now, out,

they're willing to do whatever it takes.

The first coronavirus death.

The new developments in the coronavirus.

Researchers suggest coronavirus

had already been circulated...

Prepare of the expected, the unexpected

and the unimaginable.

I felt responsible in the job that I have

for making sure that we were in the best situation

that we could be day-to-day

for the operation of the hospital.

And thankfully, our numbers never got out of hand.

We were able to keep it all to one unit.

Our COVID patient population,

the ones that ended up in ICU tended to be older

and have coexisting conditions.

To us, Regency Manor is not just a business.

It's really an extension of our family.

The first month was horrible,

because we weren't sure if anybody,

if any of us has COVID, you know, so,

that first two three weeks of

we would get the residents up in stages.

So literally all day,

the first month was getting people up,

breakfast, you know,

lunch, dinner in phases, you know, two at a time.

So all day long we were eating.

I really believe that once you've lived a little bit,

I think you, I think even the fear of calamity

or death or whatever

is not nearly as strong as when you're younger.

I think most of the residents

have done great things in their lives,

have traveled, have done a lot of great things.

I don't really think they're necessarily

very concerned or afraid of death or,

you know, which is kind of a nice thing.

My firm belief is that

at the federal level and at the state level,

this has been mishandled so intensely,

and again, we were trying to work very quickly.

Everybody's trying to work quickly

and understand what was going on,

but it became pretty clear early on

that those is in long-term care facilities,

especially those in nursing homes were very vulnerable.

And it is true that many of the deaths

that have been experienced thus far,

in terms of the pandemic in the United States,

have occurred in long-term care facilities.

It is without a doubt also true

that many of those facilities struggle to meet their needs

on a daily basis, completely pre-pandemic.

The White House and Congress

reached a deal early this morning

on the economic rescue package

that dwarfs the entire national...

Throw and economic lifeline to businesses

and to workers...

Providing over 800 billion dollars in support

for businesses, big and small.

At last, we have a deal.

All government expenditures come from two primary sources,

taxes and borrowing.

You know, I heard about the PPP

and I immediately went on their site.

Well, first round, they didn't have their stuff together.

I mean it literally, they didn't even take our application.

And then all the first part was gone.

So then the second part of the stimulus came in,

and I thought, this is ridiculous.

Everybody's getting, you know,

a bail of money except us.

Right now to this day,

I get almost a hundred emails a day about unemployment.

And it's so far behind now

that there are people that are at-risk

of losing their homes, you know,

and losing everything just because

they just haven't gotten to their name yet in the system.

Well, I believe that as finances are distributed,

it depends on the priority of the people

that are distributing the money.

And whether it's nursing homes or not,

they're the ones that are,

they're picking the ones that get the money.

I probably applied to about six

or seven places, literally.