Tag Archives: coronavirus

medical news, science news

Times — and customs — are changing as we fight disease

We made a command decision this morning in our house: We decided to postpone indefinitely our first RV trip of the season.

There you have it. We watched the news this morning and were inundated once more with the torrent of information and advice about how to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. One bit of advice hit us squarely in the face: Do your part.

So, we heard that advice and decided to do our part by staying off the road, away from gasoline service stations, away from convenience stores, away from fast-food joints. We’re staying home for the foreseeable future. How long that lasts is damn near anyone’s best guess.

We also have decided we can spend this foreseeable future doing household projects, embark on some tasks that need doing. Sort pictures and get ’em put away; we will start slapping some paint on the walls; our garage needs to be straightened out; the yard is emerging from its winter dormancy and it needs our tender loving care.

We also want to wave at our neighbors, wish them well, extend a kindness or three when it presents itself. Heck, we might just volunteer to deliver a random of act of kindness.

Thus, our lives are changing in real time. So are some of our customs.

The question of the day: Will we continue to practice good neighborliness as the coronavirus threat dissipates? I hope we do.

Thus, I truly believe as surely as I’m sitting here that I will continue to do my part.

national news

Uh, Mr. President, you don’t deserve a ’10’ on coronavirus response

OK, Mr. President, I cannot let your self-aggrandizement stand.

Today, you gave your response to the coronavirus crisis a “10,” also while giving the professionals a “10” for their actions to deal with the pandemic.

Let me try to parse this answer carefully, Mr. President.

The pros you’ve gathered to direct the federal response have done a stellar job, given the confusion and chaos you’ve provided with (a) your big mouth and (b) your Twitter account.

Dr. Anthony Fauci has sought to provide a realistic view of the crisis that’s still developing. He says the “worst is yet to come.” Meanwhile, you keep saying we’ve got this virus under control. Then you had Larry Kudlow, the economics adviser, tell us the virus has been “contained,” although he tried to qualify it by saying it wasn’t bulletproof. The virus is far from contained anywhere on Earth, Mr. President, so you need to tell your pal Larry to shut his trap, too.

Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams has sought to lend a key voice of reason. The health and human services secretary presents a professional demeanor. Oh, and the vice president, Mike Pence? Well, his obsequiousness is nauseating … but that’s just me.

I shouldn’t need to remind you to stop glad-handing those around you or to stop handling microphones while others get ready to speak to us about the coronavirus. However, you don’t get it, Mr. President.

I do applaud the tone you took today. I am heartened to hear you actually thank the media for the work they are doing to keep Americans informed. I am not sure about your sincerity, but the words are welcomed among the ranks of those you have vilified and demonized as purveyors of “fake news.”

Still, Mr. President, you need to cool it with the self-congratulations. Dish out the good word to those who are doing the work. You, sir, need simply to stop talking and let others tell us the truth … given that you are incapable of doing so.

education news

They’re shutting down … maybe for the rest of the academic year

The Princeton Independent School District, where my wife and I live, has made a critical command decision in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The school system is shutting down at least until May 4.

How does that affect us? We have no children or grandchildren in the Princeton ISD schools. However, nearby in the Allen ISD, our young granddaughter is home for an extra week, along with her brother. I haven’t heard whether Allen ISD is going to follow Princeton’s lead.

This is what we need to expect in school systems around the country as we all worry — without panicking, we should hope — about the impact of this health crisis on our lives.

Donald Trump today took a decidedly more sober and serious tone when discussing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. He recommended that Americans avoid gatherings of 10 or more individuals, to pay careful attention to “social distancing.” The president announced the implementation of testing of Americans free of charge.

The tone today was a remarkable change from what we heard just a day or two earlier, when he was blasting Democrats and the media for their respective roles in handling this crisis. Today was much different and I daresay much more “presidential.” I am left only to say: It’s about damn time!

But closer to home in North Texas, we are feeling the impact and are preparing for the “worst case” that medical pros tell us is on its way.

medical news, national news

Dr. Fauci: Go ahead and criticize us for doing ‘too much’

Dr. Anthony Fauci was a marathon man today, appearing on all five major news-talk shows while explaining what the federal government is doing to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

There he was: on “Meet the Press,” on “This Week,” on “Fox News Sunday,” on “Face the Nation,” and on “State of the Union.”

I caught his recitation on the first two mentioned in this brief post.

Fauci said a lot. One thing stands out. He wants the government to do all it can, even if it means it’s doing “too much.”

That’s all right, Dr. Fauci said. He said it’s OK to criticize him for doing too much. He would rather take that heat than be criticized for not doing enough to battle the potentially deadly disease.

The nation’s pre-eminent epidemiologist is sounding the bell to which the nation must answer. He urges us to “hunker down,” he warns that a vaccine is not around the corner, as some in the administration have suggested, Fauci wants us to wash our hands, keep our hands away from our face. He said today that he would support a national quarantine for as long as it takes.

If that’s too much and Americans want to criticize him, then Dr. Fauci said, in so many words: Bring it on!

local news, medical news

And now, a word to the hoarders out there

It’s not easy to say this, but it appears that panic has set in among many Americans. What’s more, the panic is utterly needless.

And … it is thoughtless.

I’ve been to the neighborhood supermarket here in Princeton, Texas and have noticed empty shelves that are supposed to be full of certain paper products. But those products are gone, apparently scarfed up by shoppers who have pushed the panic button as the nation battles the coronavirus pandemic.

Judy Woodruff, the PBS NewsHour anchor, summed up nicely on Friday the senselessness of the hoarding. Other broadcast journalists have issued similar messages.

Woodruff implored viewers to avoid hoarding toilet tissue, paper towels, napkins, sanitary wipes and hand sanitizer. Why the message? Woodruff noted what should be obvious, but isn’t: Some of us are less able to go shopping; they need these items, too. So, her message was a simple one: Think of those who are physically unable to shop the way many others are able to do.

I’ll make this observation as well: Doctors tell us that soap and water cleans our hands just as efficiently as sanitizer; we’ve got plenty of soap and we damn sure have enough water to go around.

Princeton isn’t that big of a community; we’ve got roughly 12,000 to 15,000 residents, according to city officials’ estimates. So it boggles my mind that so many of these products would vanish at this moment.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued a disaster declaration for the state. The declaration is intended to mobilize first responders and health care providers to the potential for a dramatic increase in cases involving Texans afflicted by the coronavirus. County officials are limiting crowd sizes at public events. Officials at all levels are warning us to maintain proper “social distance” to avoid possible exposure to the virus.

The messages we are hearing from every level of government — even from the slow-responding feds — is that we need not panic. Should we be concerned? You bet. My family is concerned.

Panic-buying, though, results in unnecessary and thoughtless shortages of essential products.

Let’s all take a breather. Let us deal forthrightly with the pandemic. Panic won’t solve anything. It only worsens matters.

medical news

Yearning for a POTUS who can be trusted

The doubting, the questioning and the suspicion about the president of the United States never ends.

Donald Trump’s relentless lying about the coronavirus pandemic has become, if you’ll please pardon the intended pun, almost an epidemic of its own.

His downplaying of the crisis initially was bad enough. His declaration about the alleged ease of obtaining tests to determine exposure matched it. Then came the televised speech from the Oval Office, a venue reserved only for the most serious of matters. Trump bungled that, too, by declaring a travel ban, but failing to tell us that U.S. citizens who were in Europe would be able to return home.

None of this, of course, is surprising to millions of Americans … such as me. We have doubted this individual’s veracity at every turn. The Washington Post tally of lies/falsehoods/misstatements/prevarication is now past 17,000 — and counting! And that’s just in a single term, the end of which is nearly a year out!

Donald Trump is failing this critical test of presidential leadership. He has piled too many lies all around him to be able to climb toward any level of credibility. The lying has been non-stop, incessant since the moment he became a politician. He sought his first-ever public office — the presidency — by telling us a lie about how he became a zillionaire: He called himself “self-made,” but he lied about that! The lying hasn’t stopped.

So here is facing the worst crisis — one not of his making — of his presidency and his hideous record of lying has turned us all into a nation of skeptics. We can’t trust a single word that comes from this fellow. It’s even come to doubting the veracity of the White House announcement that he has been tested for the coronavirus.

So, the crisis will worsen. We’ll hear from medical experts, the truth tellers who surround the president. We’ll also hear from Donald Trump. I, though, will be among those who cannot trust his word.

medical news

Dr. Fauci is everywhere, which is a good thing

Holy smokes, man! Every time I changed the channel this morning looking for a Sunday news show to watch, there he was: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Trump administration’s chief medical expert dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

Fauci repeated himself, but I didn’t care. I wanted to hear more from him, given that Donald Trump cannot tell the truth about anything, even when it concerns life and death issues. So, we get to hear from the premier epidemiologist on the planet.

His primary message? We had better prepare to “hunker down” for the foreseeable future as doctors, scientists and others look for a way to mitigate the spread of the potentially deadly virus.

Hunker down, eh? Got it, doc. Will do.

My wife and I are making changes in our lifestyle. We aren’t going out nearly as much. We are staying home, not wanting to venture too close to others out there who might be, you know, infected with the disease. We’re wiping down surfaces with antiseptic wipes; things like fuel pumps, shopping carts, door handles.

This hunkering down business isn’t intended to create panic. It is intended, as I listen to Dr. Fauci, as a method of deploying what we hear as an “abundance of caution.” I am OK with that.

I also am hearing some words of hope from Fauci, who told us this morning that the new cases in China and South Korea, where this outbreak reportedly started, appear to be declining. He won’t offer that as a final word of good cheer, preferring instead to caution that there might be another spike in new cases if the Chinese and South Koreans relax their own restrictions.

Having said all that, the cases in the United States are still increasing. Forty-nine of our 50 states have reported positive tests for coronavirus; only West Virginia remains untouched — so far!

Anthony Fauci said he’s working 19 hours each day. He has no time for anything else. He said he’s trying to persuade “the boss,” meaning Donald Trump, to stop shaking hands. He wants the president to use that elbow bump to greet folks. Get with the program, Mr. President. Listen to the doctor!

As for Dr. Fauci’s ubiquitous presence, as long we’re looking for answers to this pandemic, I can’t get enough of this brilliant man.

national news

This is what happens when we ‘elect a sociopath as president’

The first few minutes of this video speaks volumes to me — and it should to you — about how badly Donald Trump has blown apart the government response to the pandemic that has erupted around the world.

David Brooks, the conservative New York Times columnist, said it eloquently on the “PBS NewsHour.” This is what we get when we “elect a sociopath as president” of the United States.

Brooks expresses “rage” at what he saw this week from the president and the administration he was elected to lead.

Then there’s Mark Shields, the syndicated columnist and the progressive half of this erudite tandem, who talks about Trump’s desire to leave a cruise ship adrift off the California coast rather than let it dock in Oakland. Why? Because it would it increase “my numbers” relating to those infected by the coronavirus. Trump, said Shields, is concerned only about how it affects him, and he said that Trump not only “lacks empathy,” he has an “empathy void.”

Take a look at this video. It’s only about 11 minutes long, but it lays bare the fundamental failure of the current president of the United States and his inability to muster anything resembling presidential leadership in a time of national crisis.

national news

Vote by mail in case of emergency? Hmm, let’s think about this

They’ve been voting for president by mail in the state of my birth, Oregon, since 2000.

Now the state’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Ron Wyden, has come up with an idea to nationalize this practice in case of a medical emergency that prohibits Americans from traipsing to their polling places on Election Day.

Man, oh man. This gives me fits. Here’s why.

I like what I consider to be the “pageantry” of voting on Election Day, of going to the polling place and casting my ballot. I like handing my ballot to an election judge or placing it into a bin where it’s counted once the polling place closes.

Oregon and a few other states do it differently. They send ballots to voters in the mail. Voters then fill out their ballots and send ’em in also by mail. They’re collected and then tabulated.

Sen. Wyden’s idea might be worth doing … but only if the current pandemic escalates into something far more dangerous than it is at this moment.

As The Oregonian reports: “No voter should have to choose between exercising their constitutional right and putting their health at risk,” Wyden told The Washington Post. “When disaster strikes, the safest route for seniors, individuals with compromised immune systems or other at-risk populations is to provide every voter with a paper ballot they can return by mail or drop-off site.”

Wyden is asking the federal government for $500 million to help states get ready for a vote-by-mail program if national health officials determine it’s too dangerous medically for voters to cast their ballots the old-fashioned way.

If that’s what happens, then I’m all for it. I will not surrender my right as an American patriot to do my civic duty, to perform my role as a citizen.

medical news, national news

Trump tests ‘negative’ on virus?

I might be struck by lightning for expressing this teensy-tiny bit of skepticism. If it happens, it was nice knowing y’all.

The White House has announced that Donald Trump has tested “negative” for the coronavirus. He had resisted submitting to the examination, then relented.

OK. I want to believe the president has tested negative, that the potentially deadly virus isn’t coursing through his body. I do not want the president stricken by this disease. Really. It’s true. I do not wish ill on this individual.

However, a significant portion of me continues to acknowledge a smidgen of doubt over what the White House has told us. Why? Well, it’s the president. That’s why!

He lies. About small things and big things. He cannot tell the truth. POTUS is about as untrustworthy as any public official I’ve ever witnessed. Trump is believed widely to detest being seen as weak or vulnerable. Such vulnerability belongs to others.

As the Associated Press reported: “One week after having dinner with the Brazilian delegation in Mar-a-Lago, the President remains symptom-free,” Sean Conley, the president’s physician, said in a memo.

I want the president to be well. I want my government to be fully functional. I want to believe statements that come from this White House.

If only I could … believe it unconditionally.