While drastic lockdown measures to prevent further deaths and lower overall COVID-19 case numbers are well-intentioned, they continue to miss the point that is causing so much pain. Most Americans who oppose lockdowns do so not because they are “murderers” or “heartless” or “sociopaths” or “grandma killers” (or any other insult that has been heaped upon them), but because they and their families and friends are losing everything that matters to them while the elite class preaching shutdowns hasn’t lost a thing — except convenience.

The cumulative total number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., as of the writing of this, exceeds 13.8 million. While this is larger than we’d like it to be, it is worth pointing out how small that number is when compared to other numbers that are also having a real impact on American lives during the shutdowns. Not a hypothetical risk, or presumed risk of catching and spreading the virus, but direct impact right now.

The numbers for unemployment are staggering, for instance. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in October, 15.1 million persons “reported that they had been unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic.” That number - which is actually worse, which I’ll get to in a minute - exceeds the number of cumulative COVID-19 cases by more than one million (and current active cases by over six million) and completely dwarfs the current death total of around 271,000.

Factor in the fact that only 21.2 percent of employed persons can tele-work and it isn’t hard to understand why so many Americans are so reluctant to stay home for several more months — despite what those who have not missed a paycheck over the last nine months may say.

The numbers get even more grim the deeper you dive. The number of long-term unemployed increased by 1.2 million to 3.6 million in the month of October, and some experts estimate the unemployment numbers are even higher than what is being reported. According to Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, “The BLS official number of unemployed workers vastly underestimates the number of workers who have faced the negative consequences of the coronavirus recession, and the Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance number overstate the number of workers receiving unemployment benefits.”

Shierholz offers several explanations for this “vast undercount of the number of workers being harmed.” Workers are being “misclassified as employed and not at work, instead of unemployed.” And some workers “are being counted as having dropped out of the labor force instead of unemployed.” Also, millions of employed workers “have seen a drop in hours and pay because of the pandemic.” All of these circumstances are real — and at odds with the official unemployment numbers. Shierholz suggests that the number of workers seriously affected by the coronavirus pandemic totals somewhere near 33 million. All have lost jobs, wages, or hours. Many are not receiving unemployment benefits due to mostly outdated, underfunded, and under-resourced Unemployment Insurance programs.

I’ll be the first to admit that tracking unemployment is an imperfect science, but let’s be clear about what we are doing: We are sacrificing the well-being of millions of Americans to (maybe) help save a few hundred thousand.

The word “sacrifice” keeps being thrown around like a hot new trend. Some even speak about it as if we are involved in a global war (excuse me while I roll my eyes at all the World War II comparisons). But the term is used in only one way, rather than also referring, as it should, to the sacrifice of millions of struggling people for the sake of a few hundred thousand. 

This is the real reason that so many Americans oppose further restrictions or a second lockdown, despite what talking heads on TV might suggest about the morality, or lack thereof, of such individuals. While our governments, pundits, and community leaders obsess over the smaller numbers—cases of the virus and the relatively small ratio of deaths (at/around 2 percent depending on the situation)—they seem to have all but forgotten that they are forcing millions of people into poverty or even into effective bankruptcy.

And despite all this forced “sacrifice” and best efforts, the case numbers keep rising. Both California and Texas have reached over a million positive tests, for example. While these two states have admittedly large population sizes, their mitigation efforts have diverged drastically with parts of California still not allowing residents to get haircuts and Texas having much fewer restrictions. Both, however, have reached a high number of cases, and both have similar numbers of deaths, upwards of 22K in Texas and upwards of 19K in California, respectively. 

Nevada has, luckily, not seen such a high number of cases, but the City of Las Vegas alone has lost 129,700 jobs so far this year (with more to come). That means more people have lost jobs in just Las Vegas than Clark county’s total number of cumulative cases (120K at the time of writing this).

In the midst of this, while our federal government fails us on aid and stimulus, many keep insisting that the only path forward is for continued “sacrifice.” But even if the number of deaths doubles by the end of the year (or even if the number of deaths quadrupled to 1 million), the call to “sacrifice” is misguided just given the numbers. Add to all this the choice of some politicians to attend fancy private dinners while forcing millions to ruin their own lives for the “greater good” and, well, one sees that public shaming is the wrong way.

I’m not sure why or how this pandemic became about discounting the more than 33 million Americans who are losing, or already have lost, everything, or about shaming those who want to help them by opening up businesses and frequenting those establishments.

The class divide is now so potent that it can be seen on the smug faces of Anderson Cooper and others as they casually call those who oppose or ignore draconian lockdown measures “ignorant” or “sociopaths,” but that apparently is now the world we live in.

It is important to remember that not everyone can order Uber Eats and Amazon packages to sustain themselves while not having lost so much as a dime of their salary. In fact, most Americans can’t. Yet they are being subjected to ridicule or hatefulness at the mere suggestion otherwise.

The “sacrifice” that is being preached endlessly by politicians and armchair epidemiologists as the only way forward is only being made by one portion of the population—the poorest. The bottom 50 percent are the only ones being asked to give up everything.

So before accusing someone who is against lockdowns of being a “murderer” (the hyperbole is just insane. Really? Murderer?), just know that the actual reason for much of the opposition to lockdowns is the fact that families and households are on the verge of a very real and frightening financial death, even if they don’t contract the virus. 

That very real pain felt by a large portion of Americans is being broadly dismissed and diminished as silly right-wing politics — and it is absolutely despicable that we have allowed our politicians, pundits, and leaders to get away with it.

Andrew Wittstadt is a poet, writer and teacher based in Las Vegas, NV. His latest creative work has appeared in Bending Genres, Foothill, The New Limestone Review, and The Cider Press Review. He teaches at Nevada State College.