ACHTUNG: This is not a fair and balanced article. It is an editorial by the editor.
“The excitement is contagious — and so are the Red Cross volunteers, as they wander through the crowd, pausing now and then to touch a child’s head.” — The Firesign Theatre, “Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him.”
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” — Attributed to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)
Events and developments of the last month have convinced me that the United States must take the painful, but necessary step to shut everything down, just like Europe did months ago, to slow and then halt the spread of COVID-19. Furthermore, all future public policy on the Coronavirus should be driven by health experts rather than know-nothing politicians. A third part I want to see is the U.S. treating this pandemic just like a war, as President Donald Trump has called it, and confront it on one united front, not 50 different ones.
I’m sorry, folks. Despite our hubris and boasts of American exceptionalism, our response to the COVID-19 crisis has been the worst disaster in our history. We look horribly smug, feckless and incompetent when compared to successful countries, such as New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, Germany, France, Denmark and Finland. Our economy has collapsed as well because the private sector will not help average workaday stiffs unless they risk their lives by returning to work.
We have failed. And now it’s time for a reboot and do it right. We’ve already lost 150,000 citizens, and no other country is even a close second.
The icing on the cake came as a result of a video of the Wayland High School graduation July 30. I am certain school officials had the best of intentions and genuinely tried to avoid behavior that could help spread the virus. But they failed.
All Board of Education members, though they showed up with masks, spent the awarding diplomas portion of the ceremony almost entirely without masks and in every case, they were closer than six feet to the recipient. Six feet apart os six feet under. And worse, some hugged the maskless students.
To be sure, commencement was held outdoors and students arrived in cars and trucks at the parking lot. From what I could discern in the video, they too often got too close to one another and weren’t masked up. It was true as well when they lined up to receive diplomas.
I conclude that if customarily intelligent people with no intentions of not masking up for sinister political reasons cannot avoid slipping up too often at a large gathering, what are the chances of such slip-ups with students, teachers and staff in every day life in school, indoors with even more people involved?
Dr. Anthony Fauci was asked by CNN why the U.S. has done so poorly in the global he war on the virus. He replied, “If you look at what happened in Europe, when they shut down or locked down or went to shelter in place — however you want to describe it — they really did it to the tune of about 95% plus of the country did that.
“However, when you actually look at what we did, even though we shut down, even though it created a great deal of difficulty, we really functionally shut down only about 50% in the sense of the totality of the country.”
We had a half-hearted, slipshod and politically controversial shutdown in March and too many states reopened too soon with disastrous consequences. So we’re No. 1 all right, in numbers of Coronavirus cases and deaths.
The only way I see out of this horror show is to take the virus seriously, don’t reopen schools for in-person instruction yet and stay at home except for emergencies such as buying food. Meanwhile, the government should do what Canada did and give every family a livable temporary wage each month until we have the problem licked.
Last, but not least, Democrats and Republicans — finally create a Medicare for All law so nobody loses health care because they lost their job. Republicans and Democrats alike have done nothing for the working masses since this mess was dealt. It’s time government step in and solve the problem when the private sector can’t or won’t. But will the people hold them accountable in the only way possible: The vote?
I am about 90% as much a “doomer” as anyone you have seen. I take this virus seriously, I stay home as much as possible, wear a mask, sanitize a lot. I socially distance and I have canceled two out of state trips because of COVID-19 after the lockdown was lifted. I haven’t been within 6 feet of my elderly parents since Febebruary. I have even volunteered to take part in the Phase 3 Moderna Vaccine trial.
The US has suffered tragic human toll, personally and economically. To make matters worse, some State leaders put sick people where they should never have been and exposed vulnerable populations in nursing homes causing thousands of additional deaths. A truly unfathomable act of negligence that those leaders need to answer for.
As for your idea all I can say is not just no, but hell no!
How about you just lock yourself in and stay home instead? This country has had enough of lockdowns, its time for people to take responsibility for themselves. Its a virus, the amount of “hiding” from it that Americans are capable of has been reached long ago.
As for what Dr. Fauci said, he also said that the actions taken by this President (per HIS recommendations) saved American lives. For anyone that was paying attention in April, the models had us at closer to one million deaths by now and 200,000 dead by mid-June. As for failure, looking at total deaths is great leftist spin but the level of “success” is calculated by death rate per 100,000 people.
According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins, the US death rate is #11 behind the UK (which is #3) and much of Western Europe.
David,
It’s your ONLY hope at this point.
Cheers!!
Of the nations that report COVIT-19 deaths rated per 100,000 we are 12th. We also have systems established that rewards states that have a high number with federal funds, an incentive to report cases, New York got some 5.2 billion, in federal dollars. Our system makes it easy to report cases, we also are very liberal in what we call a COVIR-19 case.
By all means lets lock up the people in Mathew Island in the Bering Sea in Alaska all nine of them. As Abraham Lincoln said “people can’t understand the vastness of the nation”, it is the problem with socialism one size will not fit all.
President Trump did, indeed, state that this fight against SARS-CoV-s is a war, and he declared himself a wartime president. Then he did what he always does, he cowered from the responsibilities of being that thing he declared himself to be. He handed off the decisions to governors, some of whom picked up the mantel and performed well, and some of whom were no more up to the task than the president and failed their states.
The vacuum of leadership in Washington continues to emit the sorry sucking sound of failure.
The choice is Hobbesian, but isn’t it increasingly clear that you’re right about this? The failures of any sort of significant leadership from the president are glaring. Herman Cain might agree, if he could. The rally in Tulsa said more than the words of our “wartime” president. I don’t see an equivalence of the responses of Democrats and Republicans; the issue mask wearing says a lot. I’m retired, and I don’t have school age children, and I’m economically secure, so my point of view comes from the vantage point of looking on from a relatively distant vantage.
The overall fight against the Chinese Coronavirus, and it is their fault not only for the virus, but unleashing it upon the world without warning, has been devastating to those families affected.
But a lockdown is not the answer. Giving people unemployment AND supplemental federal payment of $600 per week is idiotic. People are not motivated to return to work if their old job exists. We need to start putting tax revenue back into the treasury and social security.
The Democrat strategy is to hang this pandemic on the president, when each state has their own system for addressing this virus. Some good, some bad. New York, New Jersey, Michigan and others have performed poorly in sending elderly affected people to nursing homes instead of isolating a hospital ward or room. We have learned nothing from 100-150 years earlier where those having a virus or disease were isolated from the healthy.
Getting the virus is now mitigated by early detection, treatment, and isolation. We need to get back to work, school, and colleges with social distancing and masks.
We cannot live in a cocoon forever. For those of you weak or so scared of the virus, stay home.
Is it possible the $600? Was an effort to stave off riots, sort of keep the natives happy while we figure out what to do next effort?
What happened at Wayland Union High School’s graduation is local example of the social fatigue, personnel hubris, distrust of public health officials.
In an era where science is a menu where one only needs to believe the parts that are beneficial to them, the rest is “fake science” and any news one disagrees with is “fake news”; no one should be surprised by the photos and video of what happened in Wayland.
The only thing missing from some of the comments insisting we need to fully open the economy and not show fear of the virus is promoting signs proclaiming “Work will set you free”.
Your Jew hating reference to Auschwitz isn’t funny in the least, many of those victims died without a choice.
Are we as a country suppose to stop living our lives as before COVID19? Evidently, you seem to think so. Stay home if you’re so scared but leave the rest of us the hell alone.
If you watch the news and believe them, no wonder you are crazy scared.
Please explain “Jew-hating reference to Auschwitz.”
I thought you were a history expert?
I’ve never referred to myself as a history expert, but a lifelong student of history. You were responding to Couchman, not me. You should have said so.
Albeit macht frei-translates to work will set you free.
It is on the gates of Auschwitz and several other concentration camps where so many people were tortured and killed.
I agree DTOM, Couchman was most certainly using Very Poor taste with that comment.
Dear Concerned Citizen, thank you for the supporting response.