If we had quickly shut down our borders as in 911 and treated this as a national security threat or war, which it was, and implemented quarantines for all returning citizens, we could have controlled the initial spread. We treated 911 a million times more seriously than this pandemic. And compare the damage done: 911 resulted in 25,000 injuries and 3,000 fatalities. COVID-19 resulted in 17 million cases and 300 thousand deaths in less than one year. That is greater than our casualties throughout WWII.

If we had treated it like we had 911 in seriousness, we could have stopped its rapid spread in the very beginning and had avoided any shutdown. That would have made contact tracing quite practical and stopped its rapid and widespread progress throughout the nation.

But President Trump refused to take it seriously and claimed that it would quickly die out, so he only stopped travel to China in February. But the virus rapidly spread throughout the world and came to this nation through other countries and spread from people arriving by ships and planes throughout the nation until it became well entrenched everywhere, even in the more isolated towns. But even then, the president refused to take it seriously with wearing face masks and social distancing, even when he and his family members contracted the virus.

The president politicized the pandemic instead of paying attention to what it was doing to our hospitals and health care workers and the millions who contracted the virus and died due to it. And the carnage continues to disrupt our lives and the economy as if we were engaged in a world war.

Thank goodness for the new vaccines that have completed their trial period in record time using genetic engineering of mRNA. This will start a new way of very quickly developing and manufacturing vaccines at lightning speed. This is the new way of the future for fighting pandemic and viral infections.