A World Controlled by COVID-19

Back when New York State, along with the states of Connecticut and New Jersey, were crushing under the deadly weight of the Novel Coronavirus and its COVID-19 disease, Governor Andrew Cuomo, in one of his highly respected, informative and leadership updates on the disease to his people, conceded: "...the virus is in control".

Governor Cuomo's blunt assessment of the prevalence, veracity and seriousness of the still spreading deadly pathogen, stunned New Yorkers into accepting responsibility for containing the Novel Coronavirus by staying at home, social distancing and wearing facial masks. Today, New York is one of but a few states across the United States (US), witnessing steady or declining COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths. On the other hand, 39 states are reporting COVID-19 infection increases of between 64% to 613%, according to an NPR report.

Although Governor Cuomo would readily admit that his state is no where close to being 'out-of-the-woods' in terms of COVID-19 dangers, he would surely reiterate that the "virus is in control".

Yet, national leadership in the US has failed to make the said admonition as Governor Cuomo to task Americans to accept the dangers of COVID-19 and to work in unity to mitigate the dreaded contagion. Failure to admit COVID-19 "is in control", rushing to re-open economies and complacency to simple protections against the disease, have given away to increase infections across the US with cases topping 2.6 million Americans with deaths exceeding 126,000. 

Some communities that have failed to admit that the "virus is in control" are now forced to re-shutter and to delay re-openings because of the vastness of the Novel Coronavirus within American society.

Additional evidence that the "virus is in control" is borne in today's decision by the European Union (EU) to ban Americans, just like Brazilians and Russians, from traveling to the EU because of the high concentration of disease in the US. Yet, nations like Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay have satisfied the EU's COVID-19 criteria to be allowed to travel within the EU.

Global decision making is being conducted with the COVID-19 pandemic in mind. Clearly, the world is currently controlled by COVID-19.