MARCH 13, 2020 – TRIGGER WARNING: In this post, I swear twice . . .
Damnit! Time to treat The Virus for what it is: the biggest threat to our way of life since . . . take your pick of national crises. This could well be our Grand Duzy. My evidence? Italy, a country less than one sixth our size and where corvid-19 rages; an exploding rate of infection, fatalities, and horror of horrors, an overwhelmed healthcare system resorting to “battlefield triage.” Multiply Italy’s horrors by five or six and you reach a scenario that makes Bernie’s “revolution” look quaint.
Now, for a fuller perspective . . . when I was a world-wide vagabond, I acquired a collection of Lonely Planet guidebooks, including one for Europe, broken down by country. At the end of each country chapter was a list of addresses and phone numbers for emergency medical facilities. In the case of Italy, however, there was only the simple sentence, “If you get sick in Italy, take the next train to Switzerland.”
That was 39 years ago. I suspect healthcare in Italy has improved, but however much that system has changed for the better, in the northern regions (the better developed part of Italy), it’s currently overwhelmed.
I haven’t checked the Lonely Planet’s latest guidebook for the U.S. and what emergency medical information it contains. Depending on your circumstances and insurance, however, it might well say, “If you get sick in America, drive to Canada.” In today’s edition, it would have to read, “If you need to get tested for corvid-19, fly to South Korea.”
Trump and Pence are unable to lead us out of the current crisis. We cannot wait until November. Sirens wail, bombs fall, but from central command we hear only static. The only way to save ourselves is without an appalling White House.
We need state and local government to fill the gap. We need schools, theaters, offices, concert halls, museums, major league sports, and other gathering places to continue and widen the shutdown in an effort to suppress transmission.
We also need Dr. Fauci and others—the experts—to grab the (my second swearing is imminent!) goddamn microphone from the non-leader leaders. We urgently need said experts, BACKED UP BY ALL ADULTS IN WASHINGTON, to commandeer the national public address system and go to war against The Virus. We need facts and reliable assurance, not static.
If in World War II we could convert our manufacturing capacity into a massive assembly line for mind-boggling numbers of guns, tanks, and aircraft, surely this country can do what it takes to produce, distribute and deploy millions of corvid-19 test kits, face masks for medical personnel and infected patients, ventilators for acute cases (Minnesota, with nationally high-standing healthcare, has no current excess supply), and other care equipment—all with imperative speed.
I am hoping to high heaven that the 2016 election wasn’t the opening scene in the final act of a grand national tragedy. Trump survived impeachment, but can America survive Trump? Do your part.
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© 2020 by Eric Nilsson
