Front Lines of the Coronavirus

We are each on the front lines--each of us doing our part is waging the battle against the spread of the virus and striving to save lives--even our own lives. Granted, we may not be working as first responders or in the hospitals where the battle is begin waged--but by doing our part, sheltering in place and staying home we are helping them.

U.S.S. Arizona
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941

Chernobyl, Ukraine

The struggle against the coronavirus was likened to Pearl Harbor, but I heard someone say that was a false analogy because Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack. They felt that the virus was more like Chernobyl--the nuclear meltdown in the Ukraine. The idea being that the engineers should have seen that the potential for a nuclear meltdown and prepared for it, as it was the emergency procedures were woefully under planned and ineffective. I can see both sides of the discussion, as we also should have seen Pearl Harbor coming and planned better. Parking aircraft together in the center of the airfield to make them a better target is not the right response, and neither is tying all of the battleships up in neat rows where they cannot defend themselves.

Either way, the bottom line is that the US saw the coronavirus coming from China and Italy and did not get our preparations started and now we are struggling to catch up.

And people are dying while our leaders deflect blame and point fingers. 

Welcome to the front lines whether we wanted to be there or not.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD