Despite many politicians pushing (and succeeding) to reopen the country, it’s now hard to tell which side of the wall is desirable. We all want our normal lives back. However, COVID-19 hasn’t gone away. In fact, in many states (such as ours) the infection & death rate is still on the rise – even as stay-at-home orders are now deemed unnecessary. Unfortunately, removing stay-at-home orders didn’t suddenly make COVID go away.

Today, the Missouri state governor approved extremely large group gatherings for events & venues, such as concerts, that can mean crowds up to 30,000 people at one time. What is that logic???

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Update: May 06, 2020, 00:33 GMT
USA
1,237,466 confirmed cases of COVID-19
72,256 American Deaths

Although our state is now open for “business as usual”, I realize that as much as I want things to be normal, they aren’t. It doesn’t matter much the politicians try to tell that isolation weary public that everything is now okay. Doctors and scientists say otherwise. Health officials are now predicting a huge surge in cases & the COVID death rate. Politicians, following Trump’s lead, say that this is a necessary sacrifice… Vice President Pence also told reporters today that the coronavirus task force, created to manage the federal government’s response to the pandemic, could be disbanded because “of the tremendous progress we’ve made as a country.” In order words, people are dying (and now will continue to die in even greater numbers from COVID-19), but that is not the concern of the US federal government.
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Meanwhile, in the News:
Masks and face coverings are recommended by the CDC, but not required, for Americans who go out in public during the coronavirus pandemic. The US President said that people can do what you want and that he’s not going to put on a mask. As a result of a lack of national leadership, counties and states have therefore run into limitations on their ability to maintain basic public health precautions: precautions that should accompany stay-at-home orders easing. Due to resistance from the general public, some officials have responded by merely backing off requirements that people wear masks inside businesses. Or else have not even asked.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has a simple reason for his not wearing a face mask during a visit to a southwestern Missouri thrift store. "I chose not to," Parson said tersely Monday in response to a reporter's question. "I don't think its government's role to mandate who wears a mask and who doesn't."

An OKLAHOMA city has reversed an emergency proclamation requiring shoppers to wear face masks due to threats of violence. Store employees have been “threatened with physical violence and showered with verbal abuse. In addition, there has been one threat of violence using a firearm. This has occurred in three short hours.” An OHIO order for people to wear face coverings while in stores was reversed last week. "I don't think its government's role to mandate who wears a mask and who doesn't." the governor said, “People were not going to accept the government telling them what to do.” Heavily armed men with swastika and Confederate flags at state capitol gathered inside the MICHIGAN state capitol last week in defiance of statewide lockdown orders. Governor Gretchen said they embodied some of the “worst racism” of the nation’s history. Last week Donald Trump had said of the protesters: “These are very good people.” MICHIGAN: A Dollar General Store security guard was gunned down and killed after turning a customer away for trying to enter the store without a mask, according to authorities. Also in Michigan, another man wiped his nose and face on the shirt of a clerk who asked him to wear a mask inside a different store. In Austin, TEXAS, a Park ranger was angrily pushed into a lake by someone who didn’t like to be told that “social distancing” was still in place for people out in public. OREGON: Like rallies across the country, the people attending in Oregon weren’t just there to talk about reopening the economy. There were members of the conspiracy group QAnon advancing unfounded theories that the death toll from the virus is fabricated or that it’s part of a government mass vaccination plot. There were members of the III% militia and members of the Proud Boys, a violent extremist group that espouses a white nationalist ideology.

Obviously, coronavirus is not the only danger on the other side of the wall. What has happened to our country??? This pandemic will go down in history for more reasons than the disease alone.