There may be, at long last, some good news on the coronavirus front. Modeling by the University of Washington, which has been cited by many health officials and policy experts, suggests that the number of cases may be cresting and the United States may finally be getting through the worst of the crisis.
Caution is of course warranted. The modeling has moved dramatically in recent days, though it should be improving in precision as more data is collected and compiled. And without rigorous and expansive testing — far more voluminous than the federal governor or the states have done — it’s hard to make firm conclusions about the pervasiveness of the virus or what it will do next.
And one shouldn’t bank too much on the revised statistics yet, since they indicate that social distancing is helping to slow the pathogen’s spread and alleviate the crushing demands on hospital and health-care workers. It would be a grave mistake to abandon those guidelines just as they start to show results.
However, good news is, well, good. And it is a much welcome break from the uncertainty and fear that has swaddled the region, and the nation, these last few weeks.
This has been a difficult time for so many — a period of anxiety over health and wealth, of widespread hardship and skyrocketing unemployment. It is at once a crisis of sickness and an economic calamity, both with a wide reach and long-lasting implications.
Still, in the midst of so much despair, there remains so many rats of light that refuse to give way to the darkness.
Consider, for instance, a small bit of selflessness from these pages. On April 5, the opinion page published a letter from Kay Higginson of Norfolk titled, “Sanitizer needed,” explaining that due to a recent wrist injury and the cast she needed for it to heal, she couldn’t wash her hands and was frustrated by the lack of hand sanitizer on area shelves.
Three readers sent messages in response, offering to provide Ms. Higginson with the sanitizer she sought — two people with some extra on hand and an owner of an area distillery who had transitioned to making sanitizer to meet the demand. That’s the sort of community spirit that will see Hampton Roads through this.
The difficulty of getting supplies has been a constant theme these last few weeks, be it people who cannot seem to get toilet paper at the store to our medical personnel on the frontlines of this fight against coronavirus who cannot get the personal protective equipment they need to keep themselves safe.
We’ve seen companies across Virginia transform their manufacturing lines to produce this life-saving gear, including businesses in Hampton Roads, and members of the public use spare time at home to stitch masks for those who need them.
Then Old Dominion University applied its prodigious intellectual resources to the problem. At the behest of officials at Sentara, engineers at the school developed and designed parts that could be produced using 3D printers and began manufacturing them to help medical personnel.
They are now printing about 50 masks per day, which are being used by staff at Sentara and Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, giving medical professionals there the protection they need to keep up the war against COVID-19.
Finally, we want to mention the valuable public service being performed by local, state and federal officials, many of whom are collecting information about this extraordinary situation and sending it to citizens through constituent emails or on their websites.
That’s an invaluable service to people who need trustworthy reliable information, and citizens would do well to see how their representation is working to help (or not) at this critical hour.
As always, the Daily Press and Virginian-Pilot continue to highlight stories such as this, of people assisting others, through a series called “The Helpers.” Anyone with suggestions for the series is urged to email us at tips@pilotonline.com.
