Metz: COVID-19 treatment will keep us all healthy absent a cure

I get it. I’m frustrated, too, with the restrictions on my activities arising from coronavirus protocols.

I miss meeting face-to-face with my friends and colleagues; I miss volunteering at the airport and at Sun Sounds. I miss dining frequently with friends and family in restaurants.

I miss having to use Zoom instead of meeting in person with my fellow board and committee members.

So I get it — everyone is tired of these restrictions and would like the restrictions to be lifted or reduced. But our elected officials — those we elected and should be able to trust to protect us — are confusing treatment with cure.

Here’s the analogy. I have a friend who is an insulin-dependent diabetic. If she continues to give herself proper doses of insulin, she keeps her diabetes under control. That is, she is successfully treating her diabetes.

We would all consider her an idiot if she said “Well, my diabetes is under control; I can now stop taking my insulin.” If she followed through on that, her blood sugar would spike and she would turn very ill.

The insulin hasn’t cured her, it is simply a treatment.

And so it is with the coronavirus pandemic. This pandemic runs rampant until we treat the spread with masks, social distancing, extra handwashing, etc. But we understand it’s a treatment, not a cure. Until a vaccine is available, if we stop wearing masks or stop social distancing the pandemic will start spreading again.

Several times in the last several months, restrictions have been lifted and — guess what — two weeks later we see a spike in new coronavirus cases.
So to be clear, masks and other protocols are a treatment to keep the pandemic from worsening; if we stop the treatment, the spread will again accelerate and more people will become sick, and more people will die.

So, elected leaders, please have the courage and foresightedness to make the tough decisions. Remember that wearing masks primarily prevents the wearer from spreading the disease to others.

Until a safe and effective vaccine is available and distributed to everyone, require us to wear masks and follow the other social protocols that slow the spread of this killer disease.

Editor’s Note: Matt Metz is a Scottsdale resident.