So near yet so far

There are two reasons why I decided to pick Florida to hang out when in North America. Firstly, their weather is similar to ours in Jamaica and secondly, it is only an hour and a half flight to my home.

Well, all that made a lot of sense before an invisible plague hit mankind in 2020, showing proud humans that they are not as all-powerful as they thought. So,  although the coronavirus has been with us for over six months now, some idiotic politicians just cannot learn!

One of those politicians is the Florida governor, Ron Desantis, a follower of the imbecilic president whose handling of the virus has caused the USA to suffer unnecessary deaths, and devastation.

For both Desantis and the president, have not only refused to adhere to the primary  recommendations of knowledgable scientists but even the basic wearing of a mask, which has proven to help contain spread the virus, they have politicized, to the detriment of the entire country. 

So now Trump's rabid followers who take their every cue from him, have been spreading the virus in Red states, as they adamantly refused to wear masks and are even scoffing a social distancing. This has caused confrontation in some business places and on the streets. Granted in the USA it has not reached the point it did in France recently, where it was reported that in the city of Bayonne, a bus driver was severely beaten and later died, when he demanded  that four passengers wear masks when traveling on his bus. That is tragic but I actually expected to see that type of a report coming out of the USA before anywhere else!

 What's the big deal about wearing a mask if it can save lives? 

The people of Vietnam have been wearing masks for decades, not because of the virus, but because that absolutely beautiful country is being destroyed by smog. Actually, one of the masks I now wear, I bought there about two years ago.

Many scientists are now convinced that it is the widespread use of masks there, which has led to their amazing success in fighting the virus, for according to reports, with a population of over 95 million, as of 11 July 2020, they had 370 confirmed cases, 350 recoveries, and no deaths.'

Jamaica too has been doing quite well at managing the virus, since with over 737 positive cases of coronavirus detected, there have been only 10 deaths. In other words, these two so-called third-world countries have learned how to contain the spread of the virus.

 On the other hand, at this time, Florida, population just under 22 million and a supposedly first world state, has over a quarter-million cases of the virus and more than 4,100 deaths thus far. Interestingly, the government refuses to say how many people are critically ill in hospital, but reports are being leaked to the effect that most of the hospitals are running out of beds for critically ill people. All this is because of the governor taking his cue from Trump instead of qualified scientists. 

What started me on this rant is the fact that I wish to visit my beautiful home, but since I am presently in highly contaminated Florida, I have to take a test which should be no older than seven days, showing that I am virus-free before I will be allowed to go to my home.

However, the slothful authorities in Florida have caused the testing process to be a total mess.

To begin with, it took me about four days to find a place where I could get an appointment to do a test and when I actually did it, the time period to have the results returned, had moved from 4-6 days to 7-10 days. 

In other words, I am stuck here. 

I wonder how many people you can contaminate if you are going around with the virus for 7-10 days but don't know that you have it?

Of course, I am not blaming the Jamaican government for putting in place, stringent measures to curb the importation of the virus.

Oh yes, I have long maintained that we should learn to live with it, for it may be with us for years, and we certainly can't keep our country locked down. The fact is, this virus kills and severely affects very few who get it, but keeping the country locked down will be too devastating for the majority of the Jamaican population, some 17 % of whom already live in poverty. So if the government decides to open up tourism but bans people coming from severely contaminated places in the USA, I totally agree with them, even if it means that for the first time in my life, I will be unable to go to my home at will, although Florida remains, so near yet so far.