Automobile Fatalities or COVID-19, Which Should We Fear More?

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As a resident of Houston, Texas, it was only to be expected that following Texas governor Greg Abbott's executive order allowing institutions and businesses to take the first steps towards reopening our "economy", there would be a crescendo of folks opining on where that leaves the Lone Star State. I have heard friends describe Texas (along with Georgia) as a canary in the coal mine, while others have attempted to rationalize the risk of death from coronavirus as analogous to that from an automobile fatality. Regarding the latter, let us be very clear that the two are very different things, though the comparison could offer some important lessons in how to analyze risks of the coronavirus and individual choices going forward.

Without delving too deeply into the number of traffic fatalities that occur daily or annually, let us assume that the numbers are nearly identical to the fatalities from COVID-19. With that said, there are a few factors we can consider as key contributors that cause traffic fatalities including: driving at a high rate of speed, distracted driving, failure to wear a seat-belt, failure to maintain good brakes and tires, using of a mobile device while driving, driving late at night, impaired driving, failure to drive defensively, human error, and the driver of the other car engaging in any of the aforementioned behaviors or failing in any of the safety precautionary procedures.

The parallel to that in analyzing risk factors associated with fatality from COVID-19 would be: failure to wear a mask, failure to wear gloves when touching surfaces touched by others, failure to wash or disinfect your hands regularly, being in contact with a lot of people, touching your face frequently when outside your home, failing to maintain social-distancing, working out at the gym with others, being in contact with an asymptomatic carrier of the virus, being in close proximity of people in public outdoor spaces, and being indoors in public places with people not from your household.

Consideration of the risk factors of dying or seriously harming oneself from a car accident is the reason most people take precautions and make efforts to focus while driving, wear a seat belt, drive defensively, and why some do not drive late at night. Similarly, it is only reasonable that many people wear gloves and masks voluntarily, stay home as much as possible, limit interaction with others, and will not go into your restaurant, gym, mall, retail store, or movie theater come May 1st. So from a strictly comparative standpoint, most people will effectively be taking precautionary steps to continue to protect themselves from contracting the coronavirus, in the same manner most drivers will continue to take precautionary measures to protect themselves while driving.

Finally, a fear of dying is not the only risk associated with contracting COVID-19. Rather, one has to consider the consequences it stands to wreak on your family, finances, and your future. If you are one of the many "lucky" ones who are asymptomatic carriers, you now carry the burden of not infecting those in your household or family who may not fare as well against the disease. If you are one of the mis-fortunate ones who are sickened by this disease, you have a grueling pathway ahead, which includes weeks spent in isolation from your family, potentially high medical bills, and other potential long-term health consequences that many who have recovered from the disease have to endure.

Laolu Davies-Yemitan is a real estate broker and developer who specializes in housing, multifamily development, and urban revitalization. He editorializes on issues related to affordable housing, real estate markets, public policy, and current affairs. LaoluD.blogspot.com; Twitter: @laoludavies

ENOUGH TALK: Coronavirus Signals it's Time to Restructure the American System

The healthcare crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has forced the nation to accept new standards of doing things, from people being encouraged to telecommute, to bars and restaurants in conservative states like Texas and Kentucky being allowed to deliver alcohol to patrons in the safety of their own homes. If necessity is the mother of invention, then a global pandemic is the mother of modernization.

We have watched the United States, like other democratic countries in the world, undergo an unprecedented shift in the curbing of individual rights in the interest of public safety. Right along with that, there’s been a dramatic shift in how business is being done, services are being delivered, and how government is operating. This ground shift has led to an upending of norms in just about every industry and societal system, which begs the question, why haven’t we adopted these changing norms all along despite having the capability to do so?

During every biennial legislative session in the Texas legislature, we routinely hear horror stories of people who travel hundreds of miles to show up to testify on a bill, only to be held up at the Capitol until the wee hours of the morning, as legislative committees endure the drudgery of marathon hearings. Similarly, working class citizens are routinely hard pressed to show up for City Council meetings or public hearings that take place smack in the middle of the workday in Downtown, making it impossible for a staggering number of the population to ever make it before their elected representatives to present their case.

It’s time for America to accept these critical lessons as a clarion call that we heed by adapting these new norms, which will help transform our society as we approach the 2^nd quarter of the 21^st century. To achieve this transition, we must build a robust online security infrastructure, which leverages blockchain technology and the latest security tools to help protect basic online transactions. The federal government should similarly build a secure internet system to support every level of government, which would provide a platform and portal through which smaller local governments can process their transactions and also backup their systems, helping them avoid breaches by nefarious online actors that have become all too common.

Taking these foundational steps will help us build a platform through which we can fundamentally modernize government at every level, and adopt a new standard where online and technology supported systems are the primary option for everything from car registration to voting, with manual/hard copy serving as a backup system for redundancy and security. This would speed up the process of helping smaller governmental entities better serve their constituents, operate more efficiently, and increase their capabilities. Within the next five years, all public meetings by governmental and quasi-governmental entities should be accessible online, with key witnesses and stakeholders being able to provide testimony via teleconferencing. Furthermore, citizens will be able to conduct more transactions online, saving them time and making government more accessible.

Earlier this week, in a fell swoop Texas’ governor Greg Abbott waived the physical meeting requirement of the Texas Open Meetings Act, allowing political bodies and governmental agencies to conduct their meetings via teleconference. Similarly, at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, major universities all over the country promptly announced they would be moving all courses online for the remainder of the semester. Public school districts have also begun following suit with several transitioning to online virtual learning. One issue that this transition online will undoubtedly make glaring is the digital divide that has existed and become further exacerbated over the last five years, as technological advances were made with 4-G and recently 5-G.

Notwithstanding, public K-12 education should immediately shift all curriculum design to include an online track for parents to follow, which would also be a backup for students to fall back on during illnesses, seasonal disease outbreak, and other emergencies. Higher education should increasingly shift to an online model, with students only being compelled to classroom attendance for exams and laboratory exercises. Furthermore, universities and colleges need to make emergency preparedness a standard part of the education degree (minor) offerings for their social and natural science departments, so that we have more localized expertise that can step up in times of crisis.

On the industry side, telecommuting for work should become a readily acceptable work model, particularly during seasonal health outbreaks, natural disasters, and other man-made disruptions. We now see the critical need to possess internal manufacturing capacity, as supply chains have been significantly strained, first by China’s slowdown following the outbreak, and now due to restrictions on public movement. We need to invest more significantly in 3-D manufacturing, light manufacturing, and small-scale personal manufacturing capability. We also need to incentivize the local manufacturing of critical goods that are essential in crises situations, particularly medical equipment, sanitary goods, and non-perishable food items.

The healthcare industry needs to shift its model to one primarily reliant on telemedicine for routine patient visits, non-critical emergencies, and continuous care. Through existing available technology, doctors can issue prescriptions online for patients, and pharmacies would be able to deliver to prescriptions to patients who are immobile. Additionally, we need to have a public health option that serves as an appendage to the existing private healthcare system.

We should further consider setting up an Emergency Disaster Preparedness fund for every American. This can be done in the modified form of a universal basis income, which provides one-time payments to every adult American at age 20, 35, and 50, which will be in a restricted account that accrues over time and can only be accessed during federally declared disasters. This in effect sets up a personal disaster escrow account, which is invested on behalf of every American, can be easily accessed when affected individuals are experiencing a disaster without need for action by Congress or the federal government having to spend money it does not have budgeted.

 Laolu Davies-Yemitan is a real estate broker and developer who specializes in housing, multifamily development, and urban revitalization. He editorializes on issues related to affordable housing, real estate markets, and public policy. LaoluD.blogspot.com; Twitter: @laoludavies