MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In Friday's Ransom Note: Do We Need To Shelter At Home?
The decision is a classic no-win.
On one hand, we know Tennessee is the last place you want to be right now with COVID numbers this week the worst in the world. The amount of sickness and death, the strain on our hospitals the worst we've seen. Our cases per day already 150 more than the health department's own tripwire.
On the other hand jobs will be lost, restaurants and other businesses may close for good. Deciding between loss of livelihood and loss of life, unimaginable.
But that's what we're facing.
We are the problem of course, too many of us are non-compliant patients. We're not wearing masks, we're gathering with friends and families privately ignoring the warnings. But when have you heard the health department flat out say, "Listen, we mean it, 750 is our tripwire, if these numbers don't go down, we're going to lockdown?"
We haven't.
Instead, we hear it's already too late. The health department does have regular briefings, but it needs to level with us more. Especially if January ends up worse than December as predicted.