Dr. WHO?

As of yesterday, there were 1,878,489 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus in 213 countries. Nearly 120,000 people have died worldwide.  As of 12 April, there were 578,268 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus in the U.S. with a death toll of 23,476.  For those who want always to hear the “positive” there are currently 1,758,489 persons who have survived the virus.  (W.H.O)

The above statistics indicate that the Coronavirus is a worldwide pandemic involving 213 countries.  It is not just an American problem or crisis—it is a global crisis!  The virus is no respecter of nationality, race, age, or religion.  It does not discriminate (though the disparities among some groups is becoming more evident).  The death of a person in Italy, China, Spain or the U.K. is  just as devastating and heart-breaking as the death of a person in the U.S.A.  No nation is entire unto itself—it is a part of the main—and what happens here or there is what is happening everywhere.  The social distancing, the economic catastrophe, the loss of jobs and income, the frustration and inherent fear of what will be is not just the  American peoples burden—it is one shared with 212 other countries.

This is not the time, in the midst of all that we as a global community are facing, to play the “blame game.”  It is not the time to project on others that which we are unwilling to face within ourselves. Every nation, every national leader, every governor and mayor, every government, every health organization, every person, if honest, will say, “We should have done it better and sooner.  We should have been more prepared.  We should have seen it coming.”  But, rather than face our own short-comings, we tend to cast the blame on China or the World Health Organization, the media, the president, the congress,  the prime minister, or whoever else we can find who didn’t quite meet the challenge the way we think it should have been met.  This is not the time to be playing games of blame or any other kind of game at all! 

It is time to be cooperative, to share the burden and even the blame (if blame there has to be), to put our best scientific minds to work, to mourn together, to be a team together, to share our common sorrow, to do what has to be done, not as one people in one particular place, but as a global community.  

A vaccine may not come from an American scientist or the CDC.  It may come from some obscure health lab in Burundi, or Ghana, or Nigeria, or perhaps Brazil, Zimbabwe, Iran, China or Egypt. It is not wise to blame  Doctor WHO.  Doctor WHO may not be the problem; Doctor WHO may be our hope and our salvation.