My neighbor “Joe” committed suicide by gunshot on Sunday morning while his wife was out walking.
Gee, I just talked to him last week about his upcoming hip surgery. He seemed to be his usual self, except that he was non-ambulatory due to the hip pain. Maybe there were other health-related issues that were bugging him, or some personal stuff that was depressing him?
You never know what is going on in someone else’s head.
UPDATE: Charlie and I heard a neighborhood rumor today that Joe had recently been diagnosed as Covid-19 infected. That would bum out just about any old man in our community.)
How about the guy who pushed a park ranger into a lake when he was asked to wear a facemask at a park? Or the guy who shot a Dollar Store employee to death when that poor fellow reminded a patron that facemasks were required in the store?
What were those aggressive Bozos thinking?
I realize that lots of people are upset at the pandemic-related economic shutdown and the public health measures being utilized to reduce the spread of Covid-19. There is frustration and anger, for sure. However, the park ranger and the Dollar Store employee weren’t the ones setting policy; they were merely informing people of the policy. “Don’t kill the messenger!” goes the saying.
If you have a problem with public authority, go to the polls; if you have a problem with a merchant, shop elsewhere.
No doubt about it, the coronavirus pandemic and the economic collapse are the double-whammy from Hell. It’s never happened before in my lifetime, and everyone, from working stiffs to scientists to politicians, is struggling to find the answer. People are scared, worried, and frustrated. Government has, frankly, not done a good job with this crisis. Anger toward whomever is “in charge” is palpable.
There is a great public demand to “get back to normal”, although pretty much everyone knows deep down in their soul that “normal” will never be the same again. Lots of angry Trump people are agitating in the streets for “re-opening the economy” ASAP, while opinion polls show that a healthy majority of Americans are leery of doing that before the pandemic ebbs.
The Trump Administration has gone into hyper-drive in the past week, urging folks to revolt against “stay-at-home” guidelines (that the Trump Administration’s Task Force itself recommended), declaring victory over Covid-19 (because the death toll is projected to be less than 100,000 people!), and buck-passing the blame for the carnage on the Chinese government (because the coronavirus started there).
President Trump himself has quickly shifted his attention from the Administration’s lame pandemic response to his 2020 reelection campaign.
Professor Trump has basically awarded himself a solid A for pandemic leadership, an A for his initiatives to address the economic nose-dive, and an A-plus for his detective work in finding those who are to blame for the mess (i.e. the Chinese, the Democrats, scientists, journalists who don’t work for Fox News, the World Health Organization, ex-President Obama, James Comey, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, investor George Soros, Joe Biden’s son, and Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server).
The daily pep talks by the President at his Coronavirus Task Force briefings have diminished, as the President’s political handlers finally convinced him that he was digging his own grave by making outlandish and foolish statements each day. The Task Force will reportedly be dissolved by the end of May, at about the time that the pandemic is expected to be claiming 3,000 lives per day.
The chief epidemiologist for the Task Force, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was asked by the House of Representatives (Democratic majority) to testify on the pandemic, has been ordered by the President to stand down. However, Dr. Fauci will be testifying before a Senate subcommittee because the Republicans control that chamber. It’s politics as usual, as each political party tries to make itself look smarter than the opposition.
Out in America, people are also taking sides: it is evident in who opts to wear a facemask in public and who declines to do so. The irony in this pandemic world where the economy has collapsed is that there is very clearly a divide in who feels threatened and by what.
Old folks, let’s say age 65 plus, are the most at-risk from Covid-19, so it is common to see a good portion of this group wearing facemasks in public. The disease represents a mortal threat to them and their loved ones. According to scientists, wearing a facemask provides a 45 percent increased protection from catching or passing on Covid-19. They’re doing their patriotic part.
This age group is, financially speaking, probably less at risk from the economic collapse, as most receive Social Security and Medicare benefits and many have savings and/or pensions to supplement their income. Their costs are less and they don’t have children at home to support. So, the present catastrophe is chiefly a medical issue with them.
Younger folks, under 65, are less threatened from the coronavirus: approximately 95 percent of them will recover if they become infected, and the ones who succumb will likely be those with pre-existing medical problems. So, with this large age group, the mortal health threat is minimal.
Currently, facemask wearing by kids, young people, and mature adults under 65 is spotty, at best.
Unfortunately, though, this group, particularly in the 18 to 64 age range, is the most hard-hit economically. Some 30 million workers have lost their jobs in the past month, and it could get worse as we move forward. They desperately need to get back to work, as most Americans in this range live paycheck-to-paycheck with little savings to fall back on. Many of them also depend upon their job to provide health insurance for themselves and their families. Both the income and their health insurance are now gone, at least temporarily. The mortal threat to this group is the condition of the economy, not Covid-19.
President Trump is in a bind, politically. The pandemic is ravaging the country, the death toll is mounting, and his Administration seems to be powerless to do anything about it. The economy, the President’s own yardstick by which he measures his success, has collapsed, and its recovery will be many months, if not years, in the making. What to do?
Trump’s only options at this time are to project optimism and cast blame.
His hardcore political base will probably buy what he’s selling, but he’s got an uphill battle ahead with the Independent and Democratic voters who sided with him back in 2016. Let’s face it: he’s alienated a lot of people in the past three years, and that was before the pandemic and the economic collapse. Trump had pretty much pushed all of his chips into the pot before all Hell broke loose.
A big problem he has is that old people are fearful of Covid-19 and they turn out at the polls. The President can’t appear to be too nonchalant about the health crisis, lest he turn these voters off. On the other hand, the young folks who most need the economy to rebound don’t vote as religiously or don’t vote at all. What kind of a campaign will appeal to both segments of the population?
If things get worse, I think he will find a reason to withdraw his candidacy. They guy hates to lose, and he does not want to be labeled a “loser” or a “failure” as President.
Trump’s only possible salvation from the pickle he finds himself in right now is a Covid-19 vaccine. Teams of scientists are working day and night all over the world to develop this miracle solution. Most medical researchers feel that a properly vetted, effective vaccine will not be available until 2021.
If the Prez works hard to convince America to “re-open”, and gets lucky with a vaccine, his candidacy might be salvaged.
In order for the miracle vaccine to help Donald Trump (i.e. his re-election), the vaccine will have to be developed prior to November 2020. So, his Administration is helping the research and testing effort by reducing the “red tape”: his brain trust is calling it “Operation Warp Speed”.
Let’s hope it succeeds, sooner rather than later.
However, my cynical mind anticipates some political gamesmanship on the horizon. Just like the phony Hydroxychloroquine “game changer” that Mr. Trump publicly championed last month to quell American’s panic over Covid-19, it is highly probable that the Administration will announce a miracle vaccine in the weeks prior to Election Day…whether one has been developed or not.
Just like he announced Covid-19 testing was available to anyone who wanted it way back in March, when it wasn’t, the Administration will probably feel no compunction about promising the instant availability of a vaccine that has yet to be proven effective.
It will be the President’s “Hail Mary” effort to swing the election in his favor.
It could work… because there are a lot of gullible people out there, most of them not currently wearing facemasks in public.
And, you never know what is going on in someone else’s head.