March 12, 2021
Dear Interested Readers,
Happy For A Little Relief While Still Looking For An End Of Misery After One Strange Year
Most of us remember in vivid detail where we were on 9/11/2001 when we first heard of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and into an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 2977 people died that day and we were all traumatized by the fact that we had no idea about what would follow. What did follow was a huge loss of life and trillions of dollars in the protracted military conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. According to a detailed report from late 2018, we had lost about 7000 service personnel and over 6,000 “contractors.” Overall more than 500,000 human beings had died related to the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. We have spent more than 6 trillion dollars in an effort that does not seem to have accomplished much.
The pandemic numbers like the post 9/11 numbers are staggering. We have lost 530,000 American lives. The effort has been a huge drain on our economy. Worldwide it is even a greater disaster with a staggering 118,729,046 cases and 2,632,364 deaths. We seem to be numb to the significance of these numbers and the human and economic consequences that follow in their wake.
I don’t know if we will ever think about 3/11/2020 in the same way we think about 9/11, but I would argue that there are many similarities and some obvious differences. One difference is that there was over a month of buildup to 3/11. We had many chances to blunt its impact. The first identified case of COVID-19 infection in this country was in mid-January. The case report appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 5.
On January 19, 2020, a 35-year-old man presented to an urgent care clinic in Snohomish County, Washington, with a 4-day history of cough and subjective fever. On checking into the clinic, the patient put on a mask in the waiting room. After waiting approximately 20 minutes, he was taken into an examination room and underwent evaluation by a provider. He disclosed that he had returned to Washington State on January 15 after traveling to visit family in Wuhan, China. The patient stated that he had seen a health alert from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the novel coronavirus outbreak in China and, because of his symptoms and recent travel, decided to see a health care provider.
Our first death from the “novel virus” probably occurred in Santa Clara, California in early February 2020. March 11 is important because that was the date the World Health Organization declared that we had a worldwide pandemic. That was the date that should have ended the question of whether or not we had a catastrophic problem to solve. After 3/11 anyone who believed in science knew that there was really a problem even though our experts were under calling the potential magnitude of what we could expect. In late March Dr. Deborah Birx, the dedicated, knowledgeable, and respected epidemiologist from the CDC whom we got to know as she wore a different brightly colored scarf at each of the president’s press conferences, startled many and was disdained by others for saying that if we were lucky and did everything perfectly we might get away with 200,000 deaths. At the same time her colleague on the White House task force, Dr. Fauci, warned that if we did nothing to protect ourselves we might have as many as 2 million deaths. While the doctors were giving us their best advice, our president was saying that we would be back to normal by Easter, April 4.
So 9/11 was a sudden event and 3/11 was the sudden realization of a deadly reality that had sneaked up on us over two months. To answer my own question about what I was doing on 3/11, I can remember the news report that I heard in the afternoon that the WHO had declared a pandemic. 3/11 was also Town Meeting Day in New London for 2020. My wife and I always attend town-meeting, but this time we decided to sit at the edge of the crowd. We were practicing social distancing before it was part of our vocabulary.
I had never spoken at a town-meeting but I did at that meeting. The welfare line in the town budget which also included the public health budget was only $16,000. I felt that it was grossly inadequate if we were facing the unknowns of the pandemic. I made a motion that it be increased to at least $50,000. To my delight, my motion was seconded by someone who shared my concern. During the discussion of the motion before the vote, I gave a little speech pointing out that even in a good year $16,000 was inadequate, and that in an unusual year filled with uncertainty it might be disastrously inadequate. Most motions from the floor fail at town meetings. Usually, they are made by excentric people who want a little attention or by people who are passionate about causes that no one else believes are connected to the town’s business. My motion may have gotten a dozen votes, perhaps less, but over two hundred voted against it. I guess that a year later I could say, “I told you so!” After the disappointing town meeting, we went home prepared to be further disappointed by the president’s speech which we had recorded so that we could listen to him after the town meeting. (Please click and hear the speech, it’s only 10 minutes long.)
In some ways, these letters can be like a diary. They are a record of what was on my mind on a certain date. The March 13, 2020 letter was all about the pandemic and the president’s speech. The first paragraph locates my emotions in time and space:
I do not know where to start in the expression of my feelings about the rapid evolution of our national experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps, you share my confusion and also feel overwhelmed. I am struggling to keep up with factual reports on the progress of the pandemic. I am dizzy from trying to keep up with closings that are altering things that I had planned to do. The cancellations are coming in fast, like the evening that my wife and I had planned next Wednesday in Boston to hear a speech by former UN Ambassador Susan Rice at the Boston Symphony Speakers’ Series. That event has been canceled along with many others, like the Boston Marathon and the opening day of the baseball season. It is shocking to realize that there will be no more college sports events this spring. Will there be graduation ceremonies in May?
Further along, I quoted Paul Krugman. In retrospect, it is amazing to read how fast he had zeroed in on Donald Trump’s failure. There is no question in my mind that if Trump had performed just a little bit better and delivered a plan for dealing with the pandemic that was built on the advice of his scientific advisers he would still be president despite all of his other personal failures and a lack of a coherent governing philosophy:
For three years Donald Trump led a charmed life. He faced only one major crisis that he didn’t generate himself — Hurricane Maria — and although his botched response contributed to a tragedy that killed thousands of U.S. citizens, the deaths took place off camera, allowing him to deny that anything bad had happened.
Now, however, we face a much bigger crisis with the coronavirus. And Trump’s response has been worse than even his harshest critics could have imagined. He has treated a dire threat as a public relations problem, combining denial with frantic blame-shifting.
His administration has failed to deliver the most basic prerequisite of pandemic response, widespread testing to track the disease’s spread. He has failed to implement recommendations of public health experts, instead imposing pointless travel bans on foreigners when all indications are that the disease is already well established in the United States.
Krugman was not the only one who could see the writing on the wall. David Frum at the Atlantic and a former White House speechwriter for George W. Bush called the situation with prescience that he must have developed as he wrote his book about Trump, Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic. He wrote on March 12:
At every turn, President Trump’s policy regarding coronavirus has unfolded as if guided by one rule: How can I make this crisis worse?
Presidents are not all-powerful, especially not in the case of pandemic disease. There are limits to what they can do, for good or ill. But within those limits, at every juncture, Trump’s actions have ensured the worst possible outcomes. The worst outcome for public health. The worst outcome for the American economy. The worst outcome for American global leadership.
Trump’s Oval Office speech of March 11 was the worst action yet in a string of bad actions.
You might remember that one of the motivations for the president’s speech was a substantial fall in the financial markets. The DOW had dropped over 2000 points in a couple of days. Ultimately it became clear that he was more interested in preserving businesses and the equities traded in the stock market than he was in preserving American lives.
These 3/11 thoughts were on my mind last night as I prepared to hear Joe Biden deliver his first address to the nation. I was delighted that he had already signed the third COVID stimulus bill earlier in the day. Through my non-profit work, I know several families for which this bill will be the difference between homelessness and a deeper slide into poverty, and a real chance to survive and perhaps thrive. It is interesting to me that with this third COVID bill we will have devoted almost as much money, more than 5 trillion dollars, to saving people, business, and municipalities as we threw away over the last 19 years fighting in the Middle East with not much to show for the effort, and more in equivalent dollars than we spent to win World War II.
These were some of the thoughts running through my head as I settled in last night to hear President Biden’s speech. It was not a speech that will be quoted for memorable lines like, “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.” Joe did tell us that there is a good chance that we will be able to celebrate the Fourth of July with a few close friends or family. He promised that everyone would be eligible for a vaccine by May. He also told us that he was giving us information that might change and if it did he would admit to us the error and give us his best understanding of the facts at the moment. He acknowledged our losses and expressed deep sympathy for the losses we have experienced. He promised us that he cared and that our government was seeking to make things better. It was a simple speech. It was what we have come to expect from him over the few months since the election. There was not much “I” in the speech except when “I” was presented as I promise, or I will, or I care.
My favorite quote from the speech is,
“Photos and videos from 2019 feel like they were taken in another era, a last vacation, a last birthday with friends, a last holiday with extended family. While it was different for everyone, we all lost something. The collective suffering, the collective sacrifice, a year filled with the loss of life and a loss of living for all of us. But in the loss, we saw how much there was to gain in appreciation, respect, and gratitude. Finding light in the darkness is a very American thing to do and that is what we have done. We have seen frontline and essential workers risking their lives, sometimes losing them, to save and help others. Researchers and scientists racing for a vaccine. And so many of you, as Hemingway wrote, being strong in all of the broken places. I know it’s been hard. I truly know.”
He went on to express empathy for those who died of other causes and could not be adequately mourned with a proper funeral. He talked about the pain of losing a job. He recognized all the things that should have happened but could not happen. The things that we should do, but could not do. He recognized our divisions over masks, and the hatred expressed against Asian Americans. He recognized that the most important function of government was to protect the people and that the government was the people. He told us that we deserved nothing but the truth. The truth he told us was that we must beat the virus to get back to normal, and that is why he is putting us on a “war footing” to get the job done. We will soon have enough vaccine doses and enough sites to vaccinate everyone. He promised that as more people were vaccinated the CDC would open up what we can do. He promised it would be easy to get vaccinated, and that schools would open safely.
As he ended his speech, he reiterated that for good things to happen we needed everyone to get vaccinated, continue social distancing, and continue to wear our masks. He acknowledged that many have lost faith in government. He said he knew that we have lost faith in whether our government and our democracy can deliver on the really hard things for the American people. But, then he described the benefits of the American Rescue Plan that he had signed into law earlier in the day. He promised that there are better things ahead because this country can do anything. He finished by saying that he hopes that we will come through it all as one people. He promised that there is nothing we can’t do if we do it together.
David Brooks, a realistic and ethical conservative, wrote in his New York Times column today:
This has been one of the most quietly consequential weeks in recent American politics.
The Covid-19 relief law that was just enacted is one of the most important pieces of legislation of our lifetimes. As Eric Levitz writes in New York magazine, the poorest fifth of households will see their income rise by 20 percent; a family of four with one working and one unemployed parent will receive $12,460 in benefits. Child poverty will be cut in half.
The law stretches far beyond Covid-19 relief. There’s a billion for national service programs. Black farmers will receive over $4 billion in what looks like a step toward reparations. There’s a huge expansion of health insurance subsidies. Many of these changes, like the child tax credit, may well become permanent.
Brooks observes that Biden may not be getting much support from Republicans in Congress but his relief bill which does much more than address COVID is getting substantial support from Republican voters. Brooks sees a new day dawning:
The role of government is being redefined. There is now an assumption that government should step in to reduce economic insecurity and inequality. Even Republicans like Tom Cotton and Mitt Romney, for example, are cooking up a plan to actively boost wages for American workers.
Brooks is a little apprehensive about the moment, but he is hopeful. He ends by saying:
But income inequality, widespread child poverty and economic precarity are the problems of our time. It’s worth taking a risk to tackle all this. At first Biden seemed like the third chapter of the Clinton/Obama center-left era. But this is something new.
I share Brooks’ hope that the American Rescue Plan does herald a new day dawning. It will be a huge step forward in the effort to improve the social determinants of health. It will also give healthcare to many Americans who can not afford it because within its many pages is buried the fact that it broadens subsidies on the exchanges of the ACA. The bill will pay COBRA charges to continue coverage for people who lose their jobs, We can never achieve the Triple Aim without using the ability of the government to redistribute some of our wealth to the poor.
It has been a year like no other year. But March 11, 2021, was infused with hope that had a plan delivered by a leader who is empathetic. March 11, 2020, was a moment of increasing fear and loss created in part by a leader who could register no concern for anything or anyone other than himself and had no plan to protect us. What a difference a year can make! I am hoping for an even better March 11, 2022.
A Year In Search of the Right Mask
We have a pile of masks at our house. The picture in today’s header reveals just a few that were easy for me to find. There are others in coat pockets, on the seats and in the consoles of our cars, and lying around in other illogical places in the house. I started out using a folded bandana as demonstrated by Trump’s Surgeon, General Jerome Adams. Later I added a coffee filter to the fold based on the recommendation of someone I can’t remember. My wife now procures our masks from various sites she finds on Amazon.
I am still looking for a mask that I can use without my glasses fogging up. The choice is fog with glasses versus fuzzy vision and an inability to read signs without glasses. You might notice in the picture that there are a couple of plastic frames that can be inserted into a mask to create an air pocket around your nose. Now I hear that two masks are better than one. I had a medical appointment this week and stumbled to the door of the health center with my glasses fogged. I was met at the door by a pleasant woman who gave me a second mask to put over my own mask. Don’t get me wrong. I am all for masks. I am just hoping someone will develop a mask that doesn’t fog up my glasses.
My grandsons seem to be well adjusted to their masks. My daughter-in-law reports that the three-year-old was still wearing his mask two hours after coming home from his daycare center. My granddaughter wears a mask while playing basketball and volleyball. The young adapt fast and keep on trucking.
Some people are treating masks like just another fashion accessory. Have you noticed the masks of Nancy Pelosi? I see ads for masks that offer bikinis with a matching mask. One of my sources of interesting bow ties, Beau Ties of Vermont, has now begun to produce ties with matching masks.
One advantage I see to masks and social distancing is that I have not had a cold or any significant viral illness this winter. Perhaps I will continue these new habits even after the COVID pandemic is over! The world changed to a new normal after 9/11 in ways that will continue. I have the feeling that I will be wearing a mask in the new normal after COVID. There is definitely an advantage to the protection we get from all airborne threats.
Be well, Get your vaccine and keep your mask on until Dr. Fauci says it over!
Gene
