Johnson: This is the Covid-19 horror we feared, and created – AL.com

This is an opinion column

Ive always loved horror movies. Not the silly, gore-filled chainsaw types, just about anything else in the genre, though.

The scarier the better.

As a kid in Tulsa, I watched a local sci-fi/horror movie series called Fantastic Theater on Friday and Saturday nights. It had eerie opening theme music. Some of those gawd-awful flicks made me can-I-sleep-with-you-momma scared. (Dad wasnt having it.)

In theaters, there was nothing better than the whole place screaming at oncelike when people-eating-shark-machine in Jaws showed up, or when masked-up Jason emerged from behind a couch in Halloween ready to skewer some oblivious, hyper-hormonal teens.

My favorite film is Psycho. Not a traditional horror movie, I knowbut that shower scene from the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock movie may still be the scariest 45 seconds on film.

Right now, nine months after most of us first Googled global pandemic and novel coronavirus, were smack in the middle of a horror movie. Were that juncture in the horror film when everyone knows its about to go downyet still runs into the creepy abandoned house, at night.

Twice this past week, more people died in a day from Covid-19 than died on 9/11, our nations collective nightmare.

I have a friend whos steeped in the healthcare industry. Shes my go-to on anything from Obamacare to, of course, COVID-19. Remember early March. Back then, I wasnt really sure why the virus was called COVID-19 (how did I miss 1 through 18?!), had never heard the term social distancing, didnt have one dang mask (N95 sounded like a firecracker), and pretty much, and thought I had enough toilet paper for, like ever.

Very quickly, though, there were stirrings about shutdowns, rubber gloves, Lysol, hand sanitizer, washing our hands like kindergarteners, and, of course, masks!

And toilet paper was gone.

Cmon, I thought, isnt this all a bit much? I asked my friend if folks were over-reacting, at least just a tad. Her text reply went something like this: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

She then flooded me with links filled with charts and graphs and introduced me to flattening the curve.

In essence, she explained to my clueless self, while we await a vaccine (then we still thought it would take at least a year), people are going to get infected, and people are unfortunately going to die. These new actions were designed to slow the spread of the virus, so it would not choke our healthcare system.

So, we wouldnt run out of beds. So, we wouldntas was already happening in Europeforce any physician to decide who gets the last available ventilator: your family member or someone elses.

Were almost there, folks, and its a nightmare.

Were running out of ICU beds. At least 200 hospitals nationwide were full last week, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; more than 90% of ICU beds were occupied in one-third of all hospitals. In our state, just 7 percent of the most critically needed beds are available, according to the Alabama Hospital Association. At one juncture last week, there were just 13 open ICU beds in Jefferson County.

For months now, the brave faces at UAB have been telling us theyre grinding, that theyre handling whatever comes their way. On Friday, Dr. Sarah Nafziger, co-chair of the emergency management committee, finally got real: the number of COVID patients at UAB Hospital doubled in the two weeks since Thanksgiving, she said, and is expected to double again before Christmas.

Thats scary math.

Cue the eerie music.

Beyond beds, lets consider people. Everyone knows a healthcare worker, and weve prayed for them since this horror began. On Friday, the calm yet desperate eyes above the masks of Nafziger, Jefferson County Chief Health Officer Dr. Mark Wilson, and UAB School of Medicine Dean Dr. Selwyn Vickers revealed the nightmare transpiring every day in hospitals across the nation.

At UAB, former nurses who had moved into roles as case managers and office workers are being pulled back onto the frontlines of patient care, as are faculty at UABs School of Nursing.

Wilson aimed to put new faces on the frightening numbers: lab technicians, maintenance workers, cafeteria servers, and othersall men and women inside hospitals supporting physicians and nurses.

Its upsetting to me, Wilson later told me. Im really worried about our healthcare workers.

On a 1-10 scale, Dr. Wilson says hes about 8 or 9 worried about what will transpire before the end of the year and frustrated theres isnt much else he or any public official can (or is willing) to do about it.

Bars make me nervous, nightclubs, Wilson shared. What really scares me are private interactions. I keep hearing people are having parties. Without the public understanding how serious it is and taking personal responsibility, I dont know if shutting down things would make a difference. I dont have anything else in my quiver.

Indeed, we created this nightmare. How it ends is pretty much up to us.

Up to us just being smart. Up to us just being considerate.

Up to us just not being arrogant and obtuse and hosting (or attending) large holiday gatherings and breathing on each other like COVID is the Jaws sharkdamn scary but, it aint go get me.

Were all tired. Tired of Zoom. Tired of isolation. Tired of the divisiveness around a crisis that should have brought us together, as 9/11 did.

Take heart in that therell soon be a vaccine needle with your name on it. Think about how frightening it would be if you or someone you love isnt around to receive it.

Unafraid to start uncomfortable conversations, Roy is a voice for whats right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama (and beyond). His column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as in the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj

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Johnson: This is the Covid-19 horror we feared, and created - AL.com

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero