The unofficial start of summer in the age of coronavirus is upon us with the Memorial Day weekend coming up. The old Gershwin song told us, “Summertime, And the livin’ is easy”. Well, not so fast. Yes, all 50 states are starting to re-open, some quicker than others. The Jersey shore beaches and boardwalks will be open with social distancing, of course. But no amusement rides yet. Good news in Pennsylvania, you can now order a cocktail with your curbside pick up order from your favorite restaurant. You can enjoy your Cosmo is a Styraform cup. There are still demonstrations and even arrests at small businesses like gyms whose owners are desperate to survive and are defying orders to stay closed. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer thought she had her hands full with armed protestors showing at the capital demanding she open the state back up. Now she’s dealing with catastrophic flooding in Midland after two dams broke sending nine feet of water into a small city of just over 40,000.
Three’s a Crowd
We thought Trump had set the bar for how not to handle a national and global crisis. The mistakes, the lies, the blaming, the self congratulations, the dangerous cures, the denial of reality have all been very obvious. We have seen responsible leadership from governors like Cuomo of New York, Wolf of Pennsylvania, Murphy of New Jersey, Hogan of Maryland and Newsom of California who have been guided by health professions and facts on the ground in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. They all realize the economic crisis has to be weighed against people dying and hospitals collapsing under the pressure of relentless death coming through the doors. But if you look out around the country, the leadership in some states will scare you almost as much as the virus.
Getting Worse
Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse. I know we are all trying to be hopeful and positive and pull together to get through the coronavirus pandemic. We have seen the bravery of our health care workers and first responders and the leadership of some of our governors. But the colossal failure of presidential and federal leadership will change the country and our place in the world for years. The greatest country in history has been brought to its knees and is struggling to get back up and fight. We can’t figure out how to get people tested because we don’t have enough things like cotton swabs. We can’t get unemployment checks to the millions of people forced out of work. We are sending millions of dollars to businesses that shouldn’t be getting that money that should be going to small businesses that are desperate to survive. We have politicians overruling public health officials warning about the dangers of opening up the economy too soon and causing more sickness and death.
Voices of War
Many of us know of Anne Frank. The Jewish teenager who wrote the famous diary while hiding with her family from the Nazis in secret attic rooms in the Netherlands for two years. The Frank family had fled Germany to get away from the Nazis when Anne was young. When the Nazis overran the Netherlands in 1940, they started rounding up and departing Jews to concentration camps. In 1942, Otto Frank, Anne’s father, decided to hide the family in some attic rooms of a building he owned where some of his employees lived. With their help, the family lived for two years before being discovered and deported to concentration camps. Anne and her sisters ended up in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where it’s believed she probably died of typhus in February or March of 1945. Otto Frank was the only member of his family to survive. He returned to Netherlands and found that his secretary Miep Gies had saved Anne’s diary. He had it published in 1947 as “The Diary of a Young Girl.” It’s been translated into 70 languages.
Year Like No Other
We all got through our virtual Passover and Easter celebrations to wake up today to a miserable day of rain, wind and tornado watches. We’re about halfway through April and have a couple of more weeks until Trump hopes we can start opening parts of the country and the get the economy moving again. He’s even appointed a new task force to work on this, in addition to the task force headed by Vice President Pence, and whatever operation his son-in-law Jared is running. Trump is getting pushback from the medical community to be very careful about rushing back to normal when the wrong move could crush the health care system even more, mean thousands more deaths and inflict more damage to the economy. Trump says it will be the biggest decision of his life. That should make us all feel confident.
Naive and Stupid
The incident involving the USS Theodore Roosevelt one of the navy’s 11 aircraft carriers can be seen as a microcosm of the mishandling of the coronavirus by the federal government. According to the Washington Post, the well respected Captain Brett Crozier wrote a blast email to 20 or 30 naval aviators warning them about an outbreak of coronavirus on his ship. The report says Crozier may have even worried that his supervisor Read Admiral Stuart Baker would not have allowed him to send a warning letter to Navy leaders. Baker confirmed to Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly that he would not have allowed Crozier to send such a letter to naval officials. Of course, the letter got leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle. Now, it gets worse.
Behind the Mask
A new day means new rules. Today the White House announced that CDC is recommending that people living in areas hard hit by the community spread of the coronavirus wear masks or some kind of face covering when interacting with people. Previously, the CDC recommended only the sick and people with other health issues wear masks in public. Now some new information suggests you don’t have to cough or sneeze to spread the virus, just speaking to someone within six feet can spread the virus. So, either shut up or get that mask on, and not the real good ones that medical workers so desperately need. You can use a bandanna, scarf, Halloween mask, ski mask, home made medical type mask, or turtleneck pulled up over your nose. Until recently, walking into a business with a mask on meant you wanted to take things and you didn’t want to pay for them. Now, if you walk into a business without a mask, you may be chased out.
April Fools
April begins with the sobering news that the United States is looking at the possibility of between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths from coronavirus if all we’re trying to do doesn’t slow down the spread of the virus. That glorious Easter celebration that a certain someone was predicting, will have to wait until next year. Doctor Fauci and other medical professionals managed to convince Trump that his belief, “We can’t have the cure be worse than the problem” could push the fatality numbers to over a million. Polling data also showed the majority of the American people were willing to stay home longer to make sure we could get a handle on the spreading virus. So a very different Trump told us about the tough couple of weeks ahead as we try to get our arms around the pandemic. He was very sober and serious. This from a guy who a month ago was waving off any concern saying it was like the flu and it will go away when the warm weather comes.
Age of Uncertainty
As I write this, I’m sitting on my deck with the sun shining and birds singing in a gentle breeze. We are feeling like prisoners in our homes, working from home, kids doing lessons on line. It helps to get outside. Everyone is trying to find ways to distract and occupy themselves so we don’t drive each other crazy in this time like no other. People are scared and worried their lives will never return to normal. There are all kinds of stories of people helping neighbors, and making masks and bringing food to the front line warriors, the doctors, nurses and other first responders who are risking their lives to save others. There are thousands of videos on line of people sharing stories and doing things to make us laugh, and even cry as we struggle through the uncertainty. Musicians are steaming live to soothe our souls. Watching the news can get overwhelming. The numbers get worse every day. The lack of national leadership has just added to the chaos and confusion.
America’s Doctor
Most 79 year old doctors have been retired for years. The healthy ones are traveling the world, and enjoying their grandchildren. Right now, they’re stuck inside like the rest of us except for one, Doctor Anthony Fauci the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. I’m sure many people never heard of him before the coronavirus crisis. But he’s one of the most well known and respected medical experts in the world. He’s the scientist who finally got President Reagan to wake up to the AIDS epidemic in 1984 and was a leader in tracking HIV and developing treatments. He has been the leader in dealing with outbreaks of Ebola, SARS, MERS, and Zika. Now he’s dealing with coronavirus and Trump.
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