69. Wishing Ill on Others

My friend Terry posted on Facebook that she had seen someone wear a mask that said “This mask is as useless as our governor.” Her immediate thought:  “Uncharitably, I want some people to get sick.” 

How many of us have wished for severe consequences for those who don’t cooperate with Covid rules—and especially those who escape?

There is a long list of notables—including many in or near the White House—who have tested positive for Covid-19. A month ago it was five people in vice-president Pence’s “inner circle.” In spurts of news releases, we’ve heard that Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and HUD Secretary Ben Carson have been ill with it. Carson confessed to having been extremely ill, and credits the new antibody treatments for saving his life. 

Forbes Magazine, certainly no screaming leftist journal, counted over fifty of President Trump’s inner circle testing positive, beginning with the president and first lady, and including sons Don Jr. and Barron, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. Two more recent high profile positives: Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis. Giuliani was mildly ill, and received the scarce antibody treatment that Secretary Carson and the president received.

Two additions that slipped quickly by in news accounts: over 100 Secret Service agents tested positive; as did over 90 members of Congress—70 percent were Republicans! Large and largely unmasked events—e.g., the reception for new Supreme Court Justice Amy Barrett and the Trump election eve party—are often linked to the positive tests, but the severity of any illnesses and the reentries into normal life are rarely noted in the press. 

How many of this large cohort of political people—mostly Republicans—got how sick? How much tracing has there been from super-spreader events—White House Receptions; Sturgis, SD? And what is the status of antibody treatments that worked well with Trump, Carson, and Giuliani?  Limited, we understand; so who gets them?

Many of us wondering these things have quietly wished that some of these people would get sick enough to get up from their beds screaming for masks. Thus far we have Rudy Giuliani gloating, as he is released from the hospital, that “you can overdo the masks.”

It’s good to ask and wonder, hard not to wish some people ill. Terry asks that we look at the moon, that “even when small… negates the idea there are us and them.”

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54. The Explosion

On this day, November 7, when the Election has been called for Biden and Harris by AP—but not yet official by Electoral College vote—and partisans are dancing in the streets or girding for judicial challenges, Covid-19 is absolutely exploding. Yesterday, there were over 132,000 new cases and 1200 deaths across the country; at midday today, we’re over half on both counts, Oregon has upped its daily record to 844, and total US deaths have passed 240,000.

 

In the face of a serious pandemic, the country has for months been politically divided over an issue of public health. The largest of the large events promoted by Covid-19 minimizers was the Sturgis motorcycle rally. South Dakota’s governor embraced it, city officials reluctantly okayed it, and 460,000 bikers from every state poured into it. Covid-19 fanned out from Sturgis, but following the threads—contact tracing—has been virtually impossible. Similarly, there is little hope of contact tracing the thousands who have showed up for political rallies.

 

In the White House, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who has eschewed masks and asked aides not to disclose, has tested positive. Meadows, who appeared without mask at the president’s early Wednesday morning briefing, has been at the center of a strategy that downplayed the disease’s seriousness and up-played the president’s quick recovery and personal “victory” over Covid-19. Add known dispersion from the White House Amy Barrett event—e.g. Notre Dame President Reverend John Jenkins, and other known White House positives, including the recent disclosure of five Pence aides, and the understanding of the current explosion comes into clearer focus. 

 

One possibility is that administration officials knew the risks, but believed—rightly—that the election itself would be over before a post-election explosion. They would deal with it in the new political year.

 

Another possibility is that wittingly and knowingly, or unwittingly and with disdain for health officials’ warnings, a large chunk of the population seriously believes that the disease is not that serious, and/or that it will soon be under the control of herd immunity and vaccine. 

 

It is left for the Trump administration in its closing days, and for the incoming administration as it gears for arrival, to assess the current situation honestly, and advise the public cohesively. 

 

It is left for us all, individually and personally, to mind our manners—and our masks!

 

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