Although he is in the process of writing a book about the coronavirus outbreak called "Human Touch," the best selling author, journalist, and philanthropist has still found time to address the public and offer a different perspective for empathizing with your neighbors.
This morning, Mitch Albom released an article through Dispatch titled "Mitch Albom: Coronavirus represents a war of the Everyman."
In this article, he detailed a realistic outcome of the de-sensitization of the death and destruction that the coronavirus outbreak has caused in America.
Although it is constantly downplayed by the media, and even by our own president, the coronavirus outbreak has proven to have been the most devastating and deadly occurrence in American history.
In just over four months, the coronavirus has claimed the lives of 100,000+ Americans. In comparison, WWII lasted for four years, and only 400,000 Americans perished within that time period.
If these numbers don't quite stick, think of it like this. The coronavirus has been roughly 12x more deadly than WWII for Americans.
America has lost more people to the coronavirus than every single war from Vietnam until now, combined.
Albom explains that society must view the coronavirus as a war that we are all fighting. Although it is easy to distance yourself from the idea of a silent threat, the more risks you take and the guidelines you break are all decisions that could endanger you, your family, your neighbors, your country, and ultimately, the world.
The science is there to state that society is not ready to return to "normal," yet, factories are putting workers back on assembly lines, gyms are allowing people to return, hairdressers are returning to their positions behind their chairs.
Albom's views may be polarizing, but the science that he references is sound.
If there is one thing to take away from his article, it should be that even though we are ready to restart the economy as a society, the disease has not weakened or gone away. Taking preventative measures to reduce the spread of the deadly virus is ultimately up to the individual, and as more people refuse to conform to CDC guidelines, more people will perish.