Obesity and Ozempic

How has the Trump administration handled the COVID-19 pandemic? Answer: so poorly that the United States has almost 80,000 dead and is likely undercounting the death toll by a lot. All presidents must be prepared for a real crisis. The sociopathic narcissist currently in the office, caring nothing for anyone but himself, never prepared and then he and his minions bungled the response to a maximal degree. Without a vaccine, let alone a plan, the United States is floundering much as it floundered under the Articles of Confederation, multiple smaller polities doing in an uncoordinated way what should be happening at a national level. The consequences are both a grim public health problem and a grim economic situation. Other nations have handled both of these problems far better than the United States.

The question of when this pandemic ends is unknown and not unitary as Gina Kolata notes. It is a multifaceted problem with public health, sociopolitical, and economic dimensions. I doubt there are many Americans who do not long for the stay-at-home orders to be done and for what they presume is a return to normality. The ideological and political divisions regarding this are being presented as some sort of litmus test for fealty to liberty and patriotism. They are no such thing. It seems to this Navy retiree that we have become a nation that cares only for the individual and not for the community (as Donald Trump epitomizes). A commenter on Twitter said it well: confusing inconvenience for oppression is ridiculous. But the lousy response of the Trump administration has changed inconvenience to raw existentialism. Out of work means no pay and for many no access to healthcare. Denmark is right, the United States is wrong. Obeisance to the gods of unfettered capitalism and the purchase of politicians by the moneyed interests yields an anti-democracy, another Gilded Age. 

Then there are the political fringes. The excesses of the right-wingers and the Trump cult are well known. Protests have arisen around the nation. Described by right-wing pundits as grass roots, they really are Astroturf in their origin. Storming statehouses and city halls while carrying weapons, supposedly to demonstrate the adherence to the Second Amendment, is really a terror tactic worthy of the basest elements of authoritarianism. In essence, if your voice and your logic are weak, the AR-15 across your chest will speak for you. If you counterprotest these people, you get doxxed on social media, another form of intimidation and terrorism.

So what do we as a nation do? Sadly, what I see is a push to open the economy so strong that it will temporarily carry the day. We will likely see more people crowding together in stores, malls, restaurants, theaters. No masks. No social distancing. Cases of COVID-19 will rebound with attendant morbidity and mortality. That will result in further and longer shutdowns, sparking increasing economic woes. Had the Trump administration shown true leadership and courage we would not be in the mess we are and the mess we will face with reopening too quickly. Trump blames everyone but the real culprit, himself. I am for voting him and his minions out in November.