We Will Survive

Winston Churchill is reputed to have said, “Americans will always do the right thing, after exhausting all the alternatives.” It may not have been a Churchillian adage but it is certainly apt. The crazy experiment of this country, now well over 200 years old, has seen us do many things right but a good deal wrong. Corrections do occur. Slavery was abolished after almost 250 years in English North America and a great Civil War, but then it took another 100+ years to correct the wrongs that occurred after Reconstruction. The struggles continue with the Black Lives Matter movement and the worldwide protests engendered by the extrajudicial murder of George Floyd -- and many others. My hope is that the generations to follow behind me do better than my generation, the Baby Boomers, has done.

The thought that came to me today though was about dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike many other polities, America has struggled with a lack of national leadership with a president who has no understanding of science, disparages expertise, and is focused on a megalomaniac desire to remain in office.  My guess is that what really feeds that desire to remain in office is the utter need to feed a fragile Trump ego coupled with the knowledge that once out of office, the entire corrupt Trump dynasty is in danger of prosecution for a wide variety of crimes. 

Let’s stick today with what seems good out of the horror we are seeing in late July 2020. Cases of COVID-19 continue to rise and, after the predicted (by experts) lag, deaths from COVID-19 are also sadly again on the rise. Politically, it seems to me that Americans are fed up with lack of federal leadership and want someone at the helm who can empathize and weld the expertise together to bring this pandemic under control. Even among the mess, there are signs that Americans of all ideologies “get it.” The Washington Post reported today that Ohio, a state under a Republican governor, has a (conservative) business community that recognizes that public health measures are what will bring our economy back. 

While the Trump administration is frantic about reopening schools and has now (sadly) co-opted the CDC into supporting this against other expert advice, parents remain skeptical about the safety of returning their children to brick and mortar schools unless there is evidence that the children will be safe in those institutions. It seems that Dr. Fauci does have far more credibility than Dr. Trump or Dr DeVos.

The progress in vaccines is heartening. While much still needs to be learned about the extent and duration of immunity to SARS-CoV-2, Phase 1 trials show safety and give a green light to proceeding with larger and more complex trials in a more diverse population. It does appear that we can be optimistic that a vaccine will be available sooner rather than later, sooner in this case meaning sometime in 2021. At the same time, it is important to remind everyone that with influenza season approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, this is NOT a time to shun immunization with seasonal influenza vaccine. One pandemic at a time is more than enough for us to handle.

So, while not exactly rejoicing, keep the good things in mind. Wear a mask, practice social distancing, make sure you wash your hands and use hand sanitizer frequently, and get your flu shot this fall. As Gloria Gaynor sang in 1978, “I will survive.”