This Covid-19 pandemic is getting old.
A feeling of hopelessness has set in, as facemask-wearing in public has become normal, neighborhood potluck socials are verboten, bars and restaurants are shuttered, and tens of millions of people are facing evictions and starvation in the face. Pro sports are taking place absent cheering crowds, for God’s sake.
“Red State” governors who scoffed at public health advisories a few months ago and audaciously “re-opened” their economies to great fanfare now have their tails between their legs, as the virus, which knows no political bounds, is settling in for the long haul. Scores of hospitals in Florida, Texas, and Arizona now have zero ICU beds available while the Covid-19 infections continue to spike.
Our President, who just a few weeks ago publicly distained facemasks and considered similar-thinking followers “patriots”, is now advising everyone to wear one…while he continues to appear publicly without one.
The economy has one foot gingerly on the gas and the other on a banana peel. It’s trying hard to survive, but a huge swath (leisure) has taken a mortal blow, and millions of workers are unemployed and in dire straits. Financial institutions are facing enormous quantities of loan defaults in the next six months. Big corporations are downsizing. It must be tough to be looking for a job right now…and it will become much worse by year’s end.
Health-related industries and employees are probably safe for now, although tens of millions of Americans have already lost or will soon lose their medical insurance. My granddaughter Jessica, who just graduated from nursing school, was hired by a Southern California hospital this week.
I can hardly wait until the pandemic abates and she can assume the more routine duties of a normal hospital. As of right now, all urban hospitals are in crisis mode.
Our friend Dan Quinn ended up at a hospital the other day after experiencing difficult breathing for a spell. It turned out that he had possibly thrown a blood clot (from his legs). That’s pretty dangerous, when a clot can flow up and into the lungs…it’s called a pulmonary embolus and is often fatal. Charlie has had a few and had to spend some time in a hospital in an ICU. The problem right now is that most ICU beds in the Sun Belt are full up with Covid-19 patients. Dan is being treated at home with medicines; in normal times, he would probably spend a few days in the hospital being closely monitored.
The Covid-19 impact on hospitals is significant. Before the pandemic, hospitals were kept busy with the normal array of heart attacks, cancers, broken bones, internal issues, and emergencies. The need to treat those everyday afflictions and accidents hasn’t gone away, but many hospitals are so overloaded with Covid-19 patients and with the special protocols that have had to be employed to protect patients and staff that other services suffer. Doctors and nurses are putting in hellacious hours while exposing themselves (and their families) to potential infection and (future) PTSD.
It sucks right now to be a health professional.
Charlie and I each got a Covid-19 test last week. Some neighborhood friends had been exposed to a friend in Idaho (who subsequently died of Covid-19!), and we socialized with them when they returned from their trip. When they found out that they might have been infected, they told us to get tested.
That was about a month ago. It took us a week to be able to schedule an appointment, then several weeks past before our test, and it will be a week from then that we might find out if we’re infected. Please…will somebody invent a better mousetrap! How about something modeled after one of those one-use home pregnancy tests? It would be nice to know you’re infected before you inadvertently infect a couple of dozen other people.
It’s a bummer to think that society is going to have to batten down the hatches…once more…to stifle this virus. Hundreds of thousands of businesses put a lot of effort (and money) into devising protocols to allow them to re-open; now they face the prospect of shutting down again, for who knows how long. Most small businesses that are closed now are not going to reopen…at all.
The big issue right now is schools.
They had to shut down in the Spring when the epidemic was taking off. Parents had to home school their children, lots of learning took place “on-line”, and high school seniors had to forego proms and graduation ceremonies. It sucked; kids actually missed school and wistfully recalled the good old days…of school. Normal working parents had to stay home to baby sit their kids during the day, make meals, teach stuff, etc. It wasn’t good for sanity or the economy.
Now, with the pandemic revitalized (due to premature re-opening) the idea of seeing another school year disrupted has got politicians, parents, and teachers all lathered up trying frantically to imagine a scenario where it will be safe to send children to school in the midst of a health emergency. The President has pretty much declared “Full speed ahead!”, but cautious parents, scared teachers, and teachers’ unions are balking. The reality is that there may be no good options available.
The last thing that any politician wants to see is a Covid-19 superspreader hot spot at a local school, particularly if that politician strong-armed the re-opening of that school.
And pretty much everyone knows that it will happen and “thoughts and prayers” will have to be dispensed and blame cast in other directions.
Meanwhile, as they say out at the ranch, “It’s nut cutting time”; i.e. time for bold action. I don’t envy local school officials.
I’ve got a stash of facemasks and hand sanitizer in my car and a storage room in my garage that’s been stocked with rubbing alcohol, aloe vera, toilet paper, baby wipes, and paper towels. My big freezer is filled with meat, chicken, pork, and other goodies. Charlie and I are ready for Armageddon.
All of this is a shame and it didn’t have to happen this way. Other countries took the pandemic seriously and squelched the thing. Political leadership failed the American people, and many knuckleheads made a half-hearted effort to social distance, wash hands, wear masks, etc. Our supposed “exceptional” society failed the test, by going through the motions, impatiently chomping at the bit to get back to normal…and now our economy is disintegrating before our eyes.
George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it”.
We lived this Hell just a couple of months ago…and didn’t learn the lesson. Instead, we listened to the siren song of politicians and self-described patriots who called the pandemic “overblown” and public health measures an “overreaction”. How gullible we were!
Accordingly, we will now endure an additional six months or so of the same Hell because science took a back seat to politics and self-interest.
As New York Yankee catcher/coach/manager and sage philosopher Yogi Berra once remarked, “It’s like déjà vu all over again”.
Yeah, unfortunately for us.
Yogi also famously quipped, “It’s not over until it’s over!”
Quit rubbing it in, Coach.