Barring the Door Against Coronavirus

By SAM URETSKY

We closed the door. We are, more or less, keeping the world out, although we will open it for brief periods to accept deliveries in the hope that one of these days our order for toilet paper has been filled. We are so desperate that we are thinking of subscribing to our local newspaper.

We are perfect people for a lockdown. First, if we were to get infected with COVID-19, our age and general health qualify us for a swift demise. That would add to the statistics – not good. Better to survive the lockdown and then expire from natural causes. The only people who would notice are mentioned in our last wills and testaments,

In economic terms, we exist only to consume. Our incomes are the product of other people’s labor. We have no role in the supply chain of either goods or services, but we and others like us, are essential to maintain demand. Oscar Wilde created the notion of MIRC, Member Idle Rich Class. We are part of an Idle Middle Class which clip coupons and eat out on Tuesday senior discounts. But as professional consumers we are worried. We can stay on lockdown for two weeks, or even 15 days, but sooner or later we will have to go outdoors to see the world, and what it has become in our absence.

In the movies of the 1950s, a man left his fallout shelter to see a world of rubble and ruin. I expect that we will leave our shelter after the plague, to see a world of chain stores and franchises.

David Remnick of The New Yorker has written this about President Trump: “The Trump Administration has been more interested in setting fires than in investing in fire prevention or containment: it has been eager to dismantle the “administrative state,” to upend a raft of international agreements (notably the Paris climate agreement and the nuclear pact with Iran), and to reduce spending for science, health, the environment, and emergency preparedness. Expertise has offended Trump.”

It is a good description of a man who knows nothing but believes that he knows everything. In the case of a epidemic that may rival the Black Plague, or the Influenza Epidemic of 1918, he calls on the medical knowledge of an uncle who used to teach at MIT. “I like this stuff. I really get it … People are surprised that I understand it … Every one of these doctors said: ‘How do you know so much about this?’”

On March 16, Donald John Trump began to understand the disaster that he should have responded to in January. True the earliest reports of COVID-19 seem to be in the popular press, without predicting that the disease which began in a Chinese fishmonger’s shop could threaten civilization, but on Feb. 15, The Lancet published a report, “Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China.” On Feb. 29, our own CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) published a report “Interim Guidance for Healthcare Facilities: Preparing for Community Transmission of COVID-19 in the United States.”

The CDC report warns hospitals, “Several major impacts can be anticipated during a severe outbreak that could affect the operations of healthcare facilities. These include surges in patients seeking care, the potential for workforce absenteeism from personal or family illness, and effects from social distancing measures such as school closures. Healthcare facilities will likely need to adjust the way they triage, assess and care for patients using methods that do not rely on face-to-face care.” It was good advice, but too late. Community Transmission of COVID-19 in the United States had already begun.

On March 11, President Trump addressed the nation about the challenge of COVID-19. The American Conservative reported, “He looked and sounded unwell I don’t suppose I’m opposed to the European travel restrictions, but it’s much too late for that to do measurable good. They would have made a lot more sense two weeks ago. And exempting Britain from this ban is senseless. It sounded like he’s trying to frame the virus as an external threat. But it’s already here, and it’s rapidly spreading. This seemed more rhetorical than anything else — Trump trying to reinforce his image as a nationalist looking out for American interests. He spoke much more about economic relief than public health concerns”

So we are on lockdown for the next two weeks or so, wondering what will have survived – not so much the survived virus as survived the lockdown. Our favorite Chinese restaurant doesn’t deliver – neither does the best pizzeria in the neighborhood. My restaurants seem most vulnerable, but any independent store is at serious risk. Is there a barbershop that’s not a salon and vice versa? Are there neighborhood book stores? We’ve heard that it will take $60 billion to bail out the airlines, but what will it take to bail out America? Donald Trump was elected president with the promise to make America great again and now, by his delays and conviction that COVID-19 would go away and leave him alone has risked what was left of the 1950s, when Trump’s populist promise was real. It wasn’t, except to those who wanted to believe.

Sam Uretsky is a writer and pharmacist living in Louisville, Ky. Email sdu01@outlook.com.

From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2020

Populist.com