(Sorry, peeps, Blogger is not letting me change the mice type.)
In the midst of the conflagration known as tRump’s management of the coronavirus, I am among the lucky ones.
I work at home as a writer and I’m used to its day-to-day solitary nature. (Just don’t take away my internet!) My husband’s job as a security office is deemed “essential” but he has minimal contact with others and carries around disinfectant and wipes. We have income from our jobs. We both collect Social Security. Our fridge and cupboards are well stocked, and yes, we have plenty of toilet paper and cat food.
In the midst of the conflagration known as tRump’s management of the coronavirus, I am among the lucky ones.
I work at home as a writer and I’m used to its day-to-day solitary nature. (Just don’t take away my internet!) My husband’s job as a security office is deemed “essential” but he has minimal contact with others and carries around disinfectant and wipes. We have income from our jobs. We both collect Social Security. Our fridge and cupboards are well stocked, and yes, we have plenty of toilet paper and cat food.
Kids play in the street and people walk their dogs. It all looks so normal.
But I’m living in a bubble.
In my quiet town, 28 cases have been reported. Two hours away, in New York City, someone is dying every five minutes. Medical personnel are scrambling for adequate supplies, which are being doled out based on political favoritism. Refrigerated trucks are set up at hospital sites to handle the bodies, which overflow morgues; loved ones have not been able to say good-bye or plan funeral services.
A series of tragic blunders by tRump and his sycophants have gotten us to this place, starting with the dismantling of the pandemic office in 2018, leaving the government without the structure to confront the pandemic.
As little as a month ago, tRump called the coronavirus a hoax and said there were maybe 15 cases that would soon decrease to zero.
The first step in confronting the crisis was to appoint a team capable of creating a plan to marshal resources. Operative word here is “capable.” With the exception of Dr. Anthony Fauci that hasn’t happened. Does anyone believe Pence and Kushner are capable of understanding the magnitude of the problem?
Testing en masse, a necessary step in tracking the spread of the virus, was promised and that didn’t happen. It still is limited and people still wait days for results.
tRump breathlessly promised immediate treatments and a vaccine. Treatments are experimental at best and a vaccine is at least a year away. He promised personal protective equipment and ventilators, then shipped them overseas or to Florida, a red state, while New York City’s health care workers re-use masks and wear trash bags to protect themselves.
Dr. Fauci is careful to correct him, but the writing on the wall
is that he may not be at the podium much longer.
No federal order was given for states to mandate that their residents in shelter in place, and most notably Florida, Louisiana, Missouri were especially slow on the draw – anyone see the connection? Nine states are still “open for business.” Wisconsin is still holding its primary, after attempts to delay it were struck down by the state legislature and tRump’s Republican-packed Supreme Court (fulfilling the party’s goal of suppressing voter turnout).
However, most states have closed schools and non-essential businesses; healthcare providers have canceled elective and non-emergency procedures. While many businesses, especially restaurants, are responding creatively by offering take-out and curbside services, pundits are predicting that unemployment may surpass 30 percent, with almost 17 million claims over the past three weeks.
tRump, of course, is antsy to reopen everything in an effort to salvage the economy and insure his re-election.
Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, has become a defacto president, offering the equivalent of FDR’s fireside chats, solid information and an assuring presence. Other governors, particularly Jay Inslee in Washington, and Gavin Newsome in California, have also stepped up for their constituents.
Congress has cobbled together a “stimulus” plan that will give $1,200 to many people and offer some help to small businesses, if they can get through their banks’ red tape. Oh, and there’s also a slush fund of $500 million for corporations, which will only be accountable after six months.
Thus far, however, tRump has refused to reopen enrollment for the Affordable Care Act (which is in danger of being axed by the Supreme Court as we “speak”), stating rather that they can pay for any medical care out of the stimulus. He is obvious unaware that $1,200 may just about cover the rent for many, utilities and food be damned.
Despite the increasingly critical nature of the pandemic in the U.S., people are still ignoring mandates – Kids playing basketball in parks, golfers on the course, and holy rollers who insist on holding services in their mega churches banking on the “blood of Jesus” to save them.
So every day at around 5 p.m. tRump and his “team” gather at the podium and offer platitudes. (Does anyone watch them any more?) He reads off his notes in a droning, breathy voice. He snipes back when any of the press asks pointed questions, brags about his Facebook ratings, blames Obama for “empty” stockpiles, dispenses pseudo medical advice, touts hydroxychloroquine, a unproven drug in which he has a financial interest, cracks a joke about “models,” and in a huge act of stupidity, removes the inspector general in charge of overseeing the coronavirus funds. All to the collective eye roll of those of us held hostage by a pandemic, the effects of which have only been exacerbated by the above ignorance and incompetence.
David Frum, in an article in The Atlantic titled “This is tRump’s Fault,” lays out in lavender the timeline of his botched response to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, my life is embarrassingly normal. I’ve followed the same routine as I have for the past five years or so. Coffee and email and assignment check first thing (meaning 9:30 or so – I’ve never, ever, been an early bird), get showered and dressed (yes, I get dressed every day), back to the office (yeah, plenty of social media), kitty time, fix dinner and clean up, then trundle back and forth between the living room and my coloring, and the office. Admittedly, it’s all to the accompaniment of MSNBC. I’ve been introduced to Zoom meetings.
I’ve been messaging with Facebook friends in Denmark, Finland, Australia, Russia, and the Netherlands. They’re all sheltering in place and working from home.
Is there any doubt that technology is our lifeline?
I’ve left the house maybe twice in the past three weeks – to go to the bank and post office, then a dash into CVS to buy Easter cards, alcohol wipes at the ready. My husband, however, has been making regular grocery store trips and ordering from Amazon. We are prepared for the apocalypse though I worry about his exposure.
No timeline has been given for ending sheltering in place. The apex has yet to occur in many cities and there’s talk of another wave in the winter. When will “normal” return? Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel has suggested 18 months and then it will be a different normal. How many of us will then divide our lives into "before the pandemic" and "after the pandemic"?
No federal order was given for states to mandate that their residents in shelter in place, and most notably Florida, Louisiana, Missouri were especially slow on the draw – anyone see the connection? Nine states are still “open for business.” Wisconsin is still holding its primary, after attempts to delay it were struck down by the state legislature and tRump’s Republican-packed Supreme Court (fulfilling the party’s goal of suppressing voter turnout).
However, most states have closed schools and non-essential businesses; healthcare providers have canceled elective and non-emergency procedures. While many businesses, especially restaurants, are responding creatively by offering take-out and curbside services, pundits are predicting that unemployment may surpass 30 percent, with almost 17 million claims over the past three weeks.
tRump, of course, is antsy to reopen everything in an effort to salvage the economy and insure his re-election.
Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, has become a defacto president, offering the equivalent of FDR’s fireside chats, solid information and an assuring presence. Other governors, particularly Jay Inslee in Washington, and Gavin Newsome in California, have also stepped up for their constituents.
Congress has cobbled together a “stimulus” plan that will give $1,200 to many people and offer some help to small businesses, if they can get through their banks’ red tape. Oh, and there’s also a slush fund of $500 million for corporations, which will only be accountable after six months.
Thus far, however, tRump has refused to reopen enrollment for the Affordable Care Act (which is in danger of being axed by the Supreme Court as we “speak”), stating rather that they can pay for any medical care out of the stimulus. He is obvious unaware that $1,200 may just about cover the rent for many, utilities and food be damned.
Despite the increasingly critical nature of the pandemic in the U.S., people are still ignoring mandates – Kids playing basketball in parks, golfers on the course, and holy rollers who insist on holding services in their mega churches banking on the “blood of Jesus” to save them.
So every day at around 5 p.m. tRump and his “team” gather at the podium and offer platitudes. (Does anyone watch them any more?) He reads off his notes in a droning, breathy voice. He snipes back when any of the press asks pointed questions, brags about his Facebook ratings, blames Obama for “empty” stockpiles, dispenses pseudo medical advice, touts hydroxychloroquine, a unproven drug in which he has a financial interest, cracks a joke about “models,” and in a huge act of stupidity, removes the inspector general in charge of overseeing the coronavirus funds. All to the collective eye roll of those of us held hostage by a pandemic, the effects of which have only been exacerbated by the above ignorance and incompetence.
David Frum, in an article in The Atlantic titled “This is tRump’s Fault,” lays out in lavender the timeline of his botched response to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, my life is embarrassingly normal. I’ve followed the same routine as I have for the past five years or so. Coffee and email and assignment check first thing (meaning 9:30 or so – I’ve never, ever, been an early bird), get showered and dressed (yes, I get dressed every day), back to the office (yeah, plenty of social media), kitty time, fix dinner and clean up, then trundle back and forth between the living room and my coloring, and the office. Admittedly, it’s all to the accompaniment of MSNBC. I’ve been introduced to Zoom meetings.
I’ve been messaging with Facebook friends in Denmark, Finland, Australia, Russia, and the Netherlands. They’re all sheltering in place and working from home.
Is there any doubt that technology is our lifeline?
I’ve left the house maybe twice in the past three weeks – to go to the bank and post office, then a dash into CVS to buy Easter cards, alcohol wipes at the ready. My husband, however, has been making regular grocery store trips and ordering from Amazon. We are prepared for the apocalypse though I worry about his exposure.
No timeline has been given for ending sheltering in place. The apex has yet to occur in many cities and there’s talk of another wave in the winter. When will “normal” return? Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel has suggested 18 months and then it will be a different normal. How many of us will then divide our lives into "before the pandemic" and "after the pandemic"?
So where will we be by then? I have no idea – given our age. I have trouble looking to my next deadline. In the meantime, I count myself among the lucky ones.
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