Despite some of my efforts, I still spent a good bit of the day consumed by and consuming news on the pandemic. There is still the not-so-great feeling of facing these things alone. I’m not terribly worried for myself, but I also don’t have those close relationships that people rely on in times of stress or anxiety – mainly that partner who has your back. I remember seeing a Facebook post, probably last May or June, that suggested think of the two or three people you would want to talk to now if you knew tomorrow was going to be your last day… It then had some sort of call to action like if you haven’t talked to them, why not? or make the effort now. So I spent some of today talking or texting with my family, making sure everyone is ok, and sending good thoughts and vibes to those I’m not in touch with. A couple of friends posted to Facebook that they’re hunkering down and listening to music and that they remembered hanging out at my house and listening to music (it’s been a constant in my life). Another friend was imagining the different stories after this is over “we rediscovered our love thanks to the quarantine” “We filed for divorce thanks to the quarantine” Will anyone name their December/January baby Covid? Is anyone listening to Steely Dan “Hey 19” on repeat (The Cuervo Gold / the fine Colombian / Make tonight a wonderful thing). Because yacht rock seems appropriate for the end of times….
Unfortunately, I tried to order groceries from Whole Foods and Amazon isn’t delivering…. which kinda ticked me off and then the reading I did, just got me more pissed off over this whole situation. Good articles on Slate and in The Atlantic point out what frauds and hypocrites we are as a country. When rich people are about to lose everything in the market, we pump ungodly sums to bail it out, when poor people are going to lose everything because their restaurant just closed, we hope that supporting the market will eventually trickle down to supporting their employer who will trickle down to keeping them employed. That is, after all of the shareholders and other debts have been paid. Read any of Trumps statements, and he’s always concerned about the market…. And when it’s all over, those who still have something left, can come in, invest cheaply and make a killing. I read one tweet that said – this is the second global financial meltdown in my adult life – and all the same people are still in charge. As I thought about our commander-in-chief and how this has been handled, I dug in to his statements over the past two months. It’s appalling how he has continuously lied about the severity and potential destruction that this could cause. Both the Washington Post and the NY Times have had pieces showing the timeline of his blundering of this disaster. Among the dumbest things were some of the late February statements:
Feb. 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. … Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
Feb. 26: “Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low. … When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. That’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”
He had the nerve to say close to zero. We’re now over 4,000 cases. He has no idea how pandemics work. Today, after two months of saying it’s under control, he says “This is a very bad one.” I hope the worst case scenario estimates are wrong (1.7 million dead), but even some conservative estimates have suggested close to 500,000 deaths in the US.