Thoughts of a retired physician

  Short post today. We are experiencing an increasing number of cases of Covid-19 with rises also in hospitalizations and (this will be later) deaths. As one who devoted a career to infectious diseases and their prevention and cure, I am both frustrated and angry. Zeynep Tufecki has written a guest essay this morning in the New York Times whose title, “ American Dysfunction Is the Biggest Barrier to Fighting Covid ” is the best summation of the moment of where we stand and why. I simply recommend today reading her essay and thinking about our country. We collectively got ourselves into a jam with how this pandemic was approached in the first place. I am reading I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Year by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. Our nation remains saddled with the debris from Trump’s corrupt, incompetent mismanagement not only of the pandemic but of this attempt to subvert our democracy. His administration bears responsibility for over 600,000 dead Americans an

  The CDC Director, Rochelle Walensky, warned us this week that we are facing a “ pandemic of the unvaccinated .” As of 2 days ago, CDC reported about 185.4 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine and that 160.7 million have received two doses of either the Pfizer-Biontech or Moderna mRNA vaccines. From a peak of 3.38 million people receiving a dose of vaccine on 13 April, now we are seeing barely more than half a million doses administered daily across the United States. Unsurprisingly, the resultant map is a patchwork quilt of states that have done very well in getting their population immunized (Vermont 86% with one dose and 77% fully vaccinated; Hawaii 84.1% with one dose and 64% fully vaccinated) while other states have more dismal numbers (Louisiana 50.1% with one dose and 46% fully vaccinated; Mississippi 47.7% with one dose and 43% fully vaccinated). The result has been a distinct upswing in cases and hospitalizations with the dominance of the Delta variant .

  Two stories today that do not seem connected -- but ought to be. This morning in the skies above New Mexico, the billionaire Richard Branson became an astronaut , soaring more than 50 miles high on his rocket plane. He beat another fellow billionaire, Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame (some would say shame) by nine days . Neither of these gentlemen went to explore or do science. These trips were for ego, narcissism, and the opening of space tourism for the ultra-wealthy to say that they, too, reached space. Their billionaire compadre Elon Musk has supplanted NASA in providing rockets to space, but at least he has partnered with them. The second story is the weather on Earth this year. Heat domes over the western parts of North America have pummeled the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia (!!!) as well as the Great Basin and the Southwest. Death Valley officially reached 129.4 degrees Fahrenheit with “heat enthusiasts” in attendance cheering. Named storms are popping up in the Atlantic ea

  Wishing all of you a Happy Independence Day. America is a unique nation, founded on an idea and principles rather than on blood and land. We have allowed too much to divide us but we also have to understand that our history is not a mythology of perfection and has its own stains and faults. Please consider the words of Christine Emba about complainers . A great nation celebrates dissent and does not silence it. Remember that the soldiers who won the Revolutionary War were not all white; as Bonnie Watson Coleman said today, “ an accurate historical record delayed is the truth denied. ” And as David Brooks notes, we have lost our ability to tell our story, America’s story, with truth and honesty; “ It is unfashionable to say so, but America has the greatest story to tell about itself if we have the maturity to tell it honestly. The Fourth of July weekend seems like a decent time to start .” Happy Fourth, my friends.

  “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” -  John Adams, 2nd President of the United States Critical race theory (CRT) is the hot topic on Fox News these days. As The Washington Post notes, Fox News has mentioned it almost 2000 times this year. It has become the latest right-wing bugbear, with Republicans saying it will destroy democracy by indoctrinating students who are exposed to it with racism and hatred for our country. The Wikipedia  entry notes that it has been around since the 1970s, primarily in academic circles, as a framework to “ critically examine U.S, law as it intersects with issues of race in the U.S. and to challenge mainstream American liberal approaches to racial justice .” I seriously doubt there are any Republican politicians who can truly articulate what CRT is all about, except as a new way to whip up ideological fervor in their MAGA f

  There is a lot to comment on and think about today -- but I just wish to say Happy Father’s Day! to all the dads I know and have known over my lifetime. We may at times look like the guy above -- but our hearts are in the right place.

  A good walk is useful in so many ways, according to Shane O’Mara in his recent book In Praise of Walking . Because the first heat wave of the year is starting, we went out for a walk early this morning. O’Mara was correct, for we were only a minute or two into the walk when we saw a car parked on Alameda Street with a man sleeping in it. The car was crammed with stuff. The man was clearly homeless but still had a vehicle for shelter. This was on the sidewalk of the beautiful retired living community we have lived in since 2019. We talked as we walked and compared notes on the condition of the United States in 2021. We are not what could be called wealthy but having worked, saved, and invested wisely, the American dream in many ways has come through for my wife and I. We are both senior Baby Boomers and the happenstance that the first 30 years of our lives were in an America that emerged from the Second World War relatively unscathed certainly were to our benefit. Please note I said