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An introduction to the quiet side of Covid-19

With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing in 2021, the Tryon Daily Bulletin is featuring a seven-part series on the impact of Covid-19 and associated government restrictions in our area, specifically Saluda, Columbus, Tryon, Landrum and Campobello.  

This series of articles will focus greatly on the opinions of small business owners, local families, churches, healthcare facilities, schools, etc., and whether they believe government restrictions had a harsher impact than the pandemic itself due to unintended consequences. This series of articles should allow individuals to determine if the measures taken to reduce the spread of Covid-19 has taken a greater toll on our community than the virus itself.

An anonymous Green Creek resident sent an email to the Tryon Daily Bulletin claiming that this series of articles on Covid-19 and its restrictions will reveal the “invisible face of the pandemic that needs to be unmasked.”

According to the CDC (Center of Disease Control), in the first week of April 2020 in North Carolina, the seven-day average for positive test results was 187. In mid-March 2021, the seven-day average of positive test results was 1,899.  

Between the end of February 2021 and beginning of March 13, Polk County lost 33 residents due to the virus. During the same period in 2020, there had been 0 deaths reported due to the virus, according to the CDC.

The CDC reported in February of this year that there has been an overall decline of 43.1% of deaths in the US due to Covid-19 since the beginning of the year. At the start of 2020, employees and college students were not required to get tested, which resulted in fewer cases reported.  Currently, employees and college students all over the country are required to get tested for the virus, which result in a higher number of cases reported.

The bottom line is some residents of the Foothills are uncertain whether the government restrictions helped reduce the number of positive cases, leading residents to wonder whether small businesses, churches, healthcare facilities, etc., suffered more from the restrictions than they did from the Covid-19 pandemic itself.  

Throughout the month of April, the Tryon Daily Bulletin will feature a segment of the Covid-19 Unmasked series in each issue of the paper. This hopefully will allow readers to come to an educated opinion on the Covid-19 pandemic and government restrictions.

By Macy Cochran