WE ARE NOT THE ENEMY
Let’s Come Together to Save Lives
Throughout human history hate, ego and greed has been the recipe to a lethal cocktail that has left millions dead and dying in its wake. The annihilation of the indigenous peoples of the Americas comes to mind. So does the horror of the Enslaved Africans in this Country, and the holocaust of the Jews and other disparate groups in Nazi Germany. Those were intentional acts by oppressors against the oppressed. Currently, however, something a little different has been happening in this land. The cocktail is being used in a different context. The refrain from Paul Simon’s song, “My Little Town”, keeps coming back to me. You know, the one where he sings, “nothing but the dead are dying back in my little town”. It is because I am staggered and dismayed by our Nation’s seeming capitulation and indifference to the coronavirus. While doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers fight to exhaustion against a tidal wave of new cases and deaths, there is silence from the leadership in Washington, D.C. Sidetracked by a blinding desire to remain in office, there have been no press conferences, no efforts to calm and comfort, no effort to wrap the Country in a warm supportive blanket. There has been a complete and utter abdication of leadership from Washington such as may never have been seen during a crisis since we declared our independence on July 4, 1776.
Way back on October 30, 2020, it was reported that the United States set a single day record for new coronavirus cases of 100,000. Yesterday, November 21, 2020, I received in the mail the latest issue of Time magazine. It is dated for the period November 30 to December 7, 2020 but was obviously put to bed sometime before the 21st. While we fiddle with other issues, and we feast on an orgy of political hate and finger-pointing about whether the left or the right are really focused on the destruction of these United States, almost as an afterthought our country is once again by far number one in the world in terms of being a COVID hotspot. In the second paragraph of the lead article in Time, it is written that on November 13th “a staggering 177,224 people in the U.S. were diagnosed.” It then says that on November 17th more than 70,000 coronavirus patients were hospitalized nationwide. What the article does not say, because the issue had already been printed, is that on November 20th 200,000 people in the U.S. were diagnosed, and more than 82,000 patients were hospitalized. That means that in less than one month we doubled the number of coronavirus cases from a merely staggering amount to a terrifying amount.
From November 16th to November 20th between 1,500 and 2,000 Americans died every day. Some days, it was the equivalent of one death per minute. It was also revealed on November 20th that the last county in the continental United States without at least one positive COVID test had fallen. So, it is literally now everywhere. The pictures that accompany this article were taken from Time magazine. The picture of the dead bodies being loaded into a refrigerated temporary morgue trailer in El Paso, Texas on November 16th is particularly terrifying. Despite all of this, the White House has remained silent. A deadly quiet in a deadly storm.
It has frequently been said that America has always come together and risen to meet serious challenges. For example, there was the great unified effort following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Then, following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, which resulted in a total of 2,996 dead (including 19 terrorist hijackers) for a brief moment we came together in a show of strength and love. Currently, however, during this, perhaps our bleakest moment, we have remained divided. It is sheer and utter insanity. People are literally dying by the truckloads, and yet all we can do is fight over whether to wear a damn mask. It is truly the theater of the absurd.
The related issue that keeps coming back to me concerns the value of science. When our car breaks down, we seek out the services of a mechanic. When legal issues arise, we may consult with an attorney. If we have a leak, we speak with a plumber. When I have torn up various parts of my body in athletic endeavors, I have sought out an orthopedic surgeon to put me back together. So why, unlike other countries that have more successfully dealt with the pandemic, has our leadership not allowed the infectious disease scientists to drive this bus. Somehow, in the United States this has become politicized. Pardon my language, but are you fucking kidding me. There was a battle in this country when it was first suggested that seatbelt use should be mandatory. However, we saw that seatbelts save lives so, with government leaders speaking out in favor of the use of these devices, we bought in.
Admittedly, science is no panacea. Science is a process. It is not (or it should not be) political. It is also not (and should not be) a search only for information and data that support the position one might favor or want to hear. Pure science, real science, is a search for data that either proves or disproves the hypothesis that we went in with. When confronted with the unknown, such as the novel coronavirus that is ravaging our people, scientists may look to evidence obtained in similar contexts as a starting point, but then they must dig in and search for data that drives conclusions, courses of treatment, possible cures, how we should be protecting ourselves, etc., in this unique situation.
The scientific process is also evolutionary, as it should be. As more data is obtained, the scientific understanding increases and, thankfully, scientists can adjust, adapt and change their positions to better reflect the evolving understanding of what they are trying to decipher and deal with. So, for example, I have heard some continue to beat the drum over the fact that Dr. Fauci did not fully support the use of masks at the outset. Let us go back and take a look at that. On February 27, 2020, when asked whether healthy people should wear a face covering, CDC Director Robert Redfield said, “No”. On February 29th, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams ordered Americans to stop buying masks because they were not thought to be effective in preventing the general public from contracting the virus, and there was concern expressed about supplies of masks being depleted for healthcare providers. On that same day Vice President Pence said that the “average American does not need to go out and buy a mask”.
On 60 Minutes on March 8, 2020, President Trump said that while Dr. Fauci says, “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask”, he himself was not “against masks”, but was worried about healthcare providers and sick people “needing them”.
However, on March 29th FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb published a paper outlining a “roadmap” for the reopening of the country that called for widespread mask use. Then on March 31st, Dr. Fauci informed that he was in “very active discussion” with health officials about reversing guidance on mask use when the U.S. gets in a “situation” where it has a sufficient mask supply, and explained that experts were then beginning to understand that COVID-19 spreads in the air among asymptomatic people who do not cough or sneeze.
Finally, on April 3rd the CDC updated its guidelines, and Dr. Fauci and the rest of the White House coronavirus task force, embraced these guidelines to “wear some sort of facial covering” when you are in public and cannot socially distance because of new information the “virus can actually be spread even when people just speak as opposed to coughing and sneezing”. On that same day, President Trump says the guidelines are “voluntary” and tells Americans they do not have to do it, adding “I don’t thing I’m going to do it”.
Therefore, in only 35 days (from February 27th to April 3rd) the scientific community’s analysis evolved, based upon research data, to a position that has remained constant to this day. That is, when in public wear a mask when you cannot socially distance. It is rather simple actually. Not that hard to do, and by wearing a mask you are telling others that you care not only for yourself but for them as well.
Despite the abdication of leadership from the Executive branch of government on this critical issue, “We the People” can decide to come together and take care of one another. It seems to me that matters of life and death take presidence over political bullshit and rabble. I think of all those who have lost one or more loved ones to the virus since the beginning of 2020. My heart breaks for them, and for all those who may have died needlessly.
I imagine some people will read this and feel that this is an attack on beliefs and political positions. But I, the author of this, will tell you what it is. It is a desperate cry from this American to put all the other nonsense aside and finally come together and try to save the lives of our brothers and sisters. There is speculation of perhaps 500,000 dead by next March 2021. Some of them could be your family members or friends or you. If we cannot put aside our trivial differences to collectively confront a life and death struggle of this magnitude, then all hope is lost and shame on all of us. We would have no standing to point a finger at any other country or community or group people based upon some moral high ground. Thousands will have died, and we will have done nothing. It is up to us to try to save the day. Happy Thanksgiving.
