Georgia's first coronavirus patient who lost his job while in quarantine says US overreacting to outbreak
The first coronavirus patient in Georgia to be quarantined in a trailer park has said that he was shocked to discover after his recovery that he was jobless, his state was shut down, and the country has been brought to a standstill to battle the deadly virus.
The patient, 30-year-old Joey Camp, a Waffle House line cook in Cartersville, despite the crisis, believes that the United States is overreacting to the novel coronavirus.
Camp, while talking to the Los Angeles Times, said: "With all the craziness going on in the world, America should show people that this is not something that should shut down countries. We need to be the adults in the room."
The 30-year-old, a former National Guardsman, reportedly contracted the virus in late February, however, he did not think much of it until his condition worsened.
Camp went to an emergency room when his chills and body aches became severe and was diagnosed with pneumonia. A few days later he was tested positive for Covid-19. Camp said that he was hooked up to an oxygen tube for three days and in the next six days he became the first Georgia resident to be placed in a 26-foot RV at Hard Labor Creek State Park that was converted into a special quarantine camp run by state officials.
The 30-year-old divorced father-of-two was reportedly hoping to return to a regular routine when he found out half the country was in lockdown with everyone outside wearing masks.
"It’s like Mad Max. It’s kind of weird. It’s like everybody’s holding their breath, waiting for either society to collapse or society to get back to normal," he said. Camp, meanwhile, lost his $10.65 an hour job at Waffle House after the eatery closed down.
"I’m making zero dollars for the foreseeable future," he said. "A person who makes $50,000 or $60,000 a year just isn’t understanding what this means." Several Americans in rural areas and small towns are reportedly dismissing calls for shutdowns and social distancing, in contrast to cities like New York and Los Angeles.
"It’s not going to kill the vast majority of the population. People are hearing 3.4 percent mortality. They’re not hearing the 96.6 percent survival rate," Camp said of coronavirus while equating it to the normal flu. Experts, however, have said that Covid-19 is at least 10 times deadlier than the flu.
There has been a noted contrast in the way Democratic and Republican states have been treating the virus, with the former taking a more aggressive stance like New York, and the later exhibiting a delayed response to the spread like Texas and Florida. Camp, who is a libertarian, said that he intends to vote for Trump again in this year's elections.
Coronavirus cases in the United States crossed 84,000 on Thursday, making it the country with most number of infections in the world. At least 1,300 people have died from the virus in the nation. While the virus has infected over 540,000 people worldwide, with over 24,000 recorded deaths, reports state. There is no officially approved cure or vaccine for the treatment of Covid-19 yet.