Keeping our mortality in its proper perspective is a uniquely human preoccupation; at least I suppose it is. To date, say, a lion’s views on dying remain a mystery. I work on the assumption they haven’t given it near the amount of consideration I have. It’s doubtful we give the subject more thought than during national crises, when the routines we depend on to distract us from such morbidity are temporarily unavailable. Of course, now we are instructed to do more than merely forsake routine, we are told to literally turn inward, to essentially hibernate for a while, for the sake of ourselves and, more importantly, the most vulnerable among us. It is an acid test of our civic demeanor. Many are failing.
“We are looking at a new war no one has seen before,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned Monday. “We have never fought a virus like this with this potential consequence.” On the other coast however, despite both multiplying cases and increasing numbers of death, California GOP Congressman Devin Nunes was all about, er, reassurance. “It’s a great time to go out to a local restaurant,” advised Nunes, directly contradicting the assessments of every responsible health professional. “Let’s not hurt the working people in this country…. go to your local pub.”
It’s a certainty, when we are finally out of the woods with this pandemic, and assuming we are still an ongoing democratic concern, Hollywood will run with the events we are now living. Surely, as is most always the case, writers, directors and various A lot “suits” will be predisposed to embellishing the truth to accentuate drama. They needn’t worry here. The good guys are clearly delineated, the bad guys even more so. Whoever plays Devin Nunes will have to take a lot of showers. Trump’s portrayer may require post-production therapy. As an annoying pest with a taste for the obvious once remarked… “you can’t make this stuff up.”
The Mike Pence Coronavirus response team, whose daily findings and recommendations are emceed – not to mention frequently contradicted – by the President, never seem to offer much more than hype and redundancy. Shout outs to “private industry partners” are frequent, but Anthony Fauci pounds away on the desperate race to “flatten the curve” of the disease’s spread. The clock is ticking.
Perhaps that’s for Trump and his wretched core’s benefit, a continuing effort to counter what they digest from all of their favorite Fox/AM “personalities.” Until earlier this week, most all of the usual suspects continued to ply the virus-as-hoax/political attack feces their loyal listeners will surely refuse to let go of until the bodies start piling up. For his part, Trump has grudgingly embraced the basic facts of the pandemic. Yet and still, one senses his cultists believe it’s a wink wink, nudge nudge situation. Hey, he’s just giving the swamp what it demands, read between the lines. Let’s go have some beers, pandemic my ass.
It should be clear to anyone paying attention to facts they aren’t keen to reframe in support of a Hannity narrative, this pandemic is going to dramatically alter the face of this land. Epidemiologists seem to concur we are going to be forced to confront a choice straight out of Faust. On the one hand we can adopt a prolonged “shelter-in-place” mentality that will reduce the carnage and protect our healthcare resources from being overwhelmed but ruin the economy. Or we can dispense sooner with social distancing and see if we can live with death like we’ve never seen before, fatalities measured in the hundreds of thousands. Any hope this condition is tamer than advertised has been extinguished by testimonials of “healthy” patients sent to ERs by near fatal complications.
To be clear the beginning has just arrived, but already ominous indicators are coming out of New York and Washington state, with patient numbers matching near to the number with Italy’s disastrous track. Cuomo, whose leadership is a reassuring contrast to the President’s indifferent counter- productivity, is doing all the right things while running out of time. He knows he’ll need more space and facilities, more people, more… everything. His pleadings to the White House for resources have fallen on worse than deaf ears, they’ve met up with Trump’s petty vindictiveness. Get your own ventilators, L’Enfant Terrible bellowed on a conference call with Governors, which he later tweeted was great with the exception of Cuomo, who “needs to do more.” Never bet he can’t go lower.
Meanwhile, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the nation, “except millionaires” is about to get Christmas for Easter. Checks up to a cool grand are about to be cut. Even though work missed has yet to exceed a significant snow event, looming economic hardship is already tangible. It appears Mnuchin and his jefe want to get the loose details out of the way before focusing on some serious corporate welfare down the line.
Pay offs are a specific strength in Trump’s skill set, and he seems enthused to start dolling out the goodies… times being what they are. Airlines, cruise ships, the restaurant and hospitality industries – no doubt energy interests are right now deciding how big a bucket to bring – the line is forming, like a Costco with freshly stocked toilet paper shelves. However far $1000 is going to go for now unemployed people already living hand to mouth, most unable to afford a sudden $400 expense in the best of times, you better believe Trump will remind them from here to eternity how lucky they were to receive his largesse. But at the end of the day the same boardroom folks who Trump maxed out the deficit platinum card for two years ago are who will feel the true healing balm of Coronavirus relief. Count on it.
In the meantime we are still a divided nation precisely when we can least afford it. Apparently, in flyover country, plenty MAGA faithful are not about to fall for this one, abandoning Fox as it relents to what passes for reason in its studios, to OAN where conspiracies about the virus as Fauci plot to destroy Trump’s economic miracle are rife. “The lord is my vaccine,” they are declaring as they wait for a table in Kansas. Worse, coddled kids will not be denied their party time. With neither Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida, or Gregg Abbot in Texas willing to do their jobs, instead ceding responsibility to local mayors and city councils, beaches have been slow to close, providing critical days of skin to skin bashes. Much good social distancing sacrifice is sure to be undone as the partiers disperse nationwide. Instead of back to school, they will return home to middle aged parents. How many will enforce rigorous quarantine measures? Clown Question.
In New Orleans, where critical cases are beginning to surge right on cue several weeks after Fat Tuesday, pulmonologists have never seen anything like this condition. The devastating speed it inflames the lungs, and the restrictions it places on oxygen intake, bring to their minds victims of toxic gas inhalation. Worse, the comfort that good health and relative youth protects from the condition’s full wrath is fraying as 40 somethings with no preconditions struggle for breath. Those in the most acute stages of Corona’s wrath require ventilators to hold on. With the patient surge just starting, they are already in short supply.
Denial is a powerful outlook. Right now it is held close by millions, stunned by events fundamentally reshaping their nation. Blaming media desires for drama, or lib agendas to bring down Trump, surely will not withstand the images we are all about to see out of virus hotspots, even if the POTUS refuses to accept truth on the ground. The profound danger added to our worry about surging fatalities is a certainty many will digest tragedy as a basis to scapegoat who they are told to blame, and lash out instead of reconciling with reality. Ominously, Trump is already encouraging such impulses with nobody of national stature stepping up to confront him on it. It’s very hard to feel reassured when your President is disintegrating into a hateful mass of lies and recriminations right before your eyes.
So where can we take heart? What can we bank on to provide hope this to will pass? Two weeks ago could anyone have imagined no NCAA tournament? Or NBA or NHL? Masters? Kentucky Derby? Wholesale school closures? The most radical transformation of American life and routine in generations took place with a few fistfights over hand sanitizer. People standing to lose millions did the right thing at first asking. That’s better than a poke in the eye.
Consider that in 1918 the flu pandemic hit in three waves just as a disastrous world war was winding down. What they had to deal with it was far less than what we are blessed with. Yet the world survived to nearly consume itself yet again two decades later. There are far graver sacrifices asked than staying at home and fretting about untimely death. Nobody ever promised us our lives would be free of collective fear and suffering. I told my daughter, sheltering in place in San Francisco, to embrace the moment as history, a tale to tell from the rocker.,So should we all. BC