Tag Archives: pandemic

local news

Iconic play falls victim to coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic appears to have inflicted a major casualty in the Texas Panhandle: an iconic musical that has been thrilling millions of visitors for decades.

“Texas” is going to miss its 2020 summer season at the Pioneer Amphitheater on the floor of Palo Duro Canyon.

This is a very huge deal in the lives of West Texans, not to mention those who have flocked to the canyon floor to watch the musical that tells the story of the settling of the Panhandle.

Donald Trump declared that the national “social distancing” guideline will remain until April 30. Texas has imposed similar measures statewide. Communities and counties are taking proactive measures, too, to stem the spread of the illness that likely is destined to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Hey, if they can postpone the Summer Olympics until July 2021, it only makes sense that the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation will put “Texas” on the shelf as well until next year.

This news saddens me, but it must be done.

national news

Not interested in hearing what Trump ‘thinks’ or ‘believes’

This thought bears repeating.

I am not the least bit interested in hearing Donald John Trump tell us what he “thinks” or “believes” about the coronavirus pandemic. I am intensely interested, though, in hearing from medical and scientific experts about the data they analyze and what their expertise tells them about what the data reveal.

The president keeps taking the microphone at those daily White House briefings. Having told you already that I don’t listen to him blather on in the moment, I am left to read about what he says later in the day. And he keeps yapping and yammering about what he thinks is going to happen or whether he believes that hospital officials need all the respirators they are seeking.

The president needs to step out of the way and let the experts talk to the nation and the world about what they know, not what they think or believe.

Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on “Good Morning, America” today and offered stark, level-headed analysis of the crisis that is developing. GMA co-host George Stephanopoulos noted that Fauci has served six presidents since 1984 and has emerged as the nation’s premier infectious disease specialist. He never fails to deliver the facts in a calm, reassuring way … even when they reveal grim news, as they did today, Stephanopoulos said.

My message once more to Donald Trump? Stop talking.

medical news

A Person of the Year nominee? Consider this

Time magazine each year selects a Person of the Year. This being an election year, tradition dictates that the individual chosen usually is the winner of the U.S. presidential election.

Here’s a thought for the Time editors to ponder: Toss that tradition into the crapper.

Whoever the magazine honors must be someone — indeed, the many individuals — associated with responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

To say that the worldwide crisis has dominated Earth’s attention is to commit the most egregious understatement in human history. I will venture to guess that the pandemic will remain front and center for the remainder of 2020 and perhaps well beyond.

Americans and others around the world are paying tribute 24/7 to health care workers, to police and firefighters, to their neighbors and family members, and even to total strangers who are delivering unsolicited random acts of kindness.

Millions of human beings are going to be stricken by the virus before we turn the tide.

I don’t know how the Time editors might categorize the winner of the Person of the Year honor. That’s their call. It’s why they make the big bucks … you know?

Whatever they decide or however they label the human(s) they honor, my strong sense is that Time should look exclusively at the millions of people who are stepping up to offer aid, comfort, relief and support to an entire planet of inhabitants who at this moment are frightened for their lives and for the lives of their loved ones.

media news

Media deserve bouquets, not brickbats

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Donald John Trump is so very fond of bashing the media, those whose duty is to report to the public about how well — or poorly — government is functioning.

Yeah, he tosses the occasional compliment, then follows that with the usual rants about “fake news” and “low ratings” and other crap designed to denigrate the Fourth Estate.

I want to sing the media’s praises especially for the way they have been covering the coronavirus pandemic.

I’ve been trying to think back to any story that has dominated our airwaves and our printed pages the way coronavirus outbreak has done. The media, for their part, are covering this crisis about every way imaginable. They are doing so in ways I never would think of were I in a position to assign reporters to cover the story.

Trump’s anger at the media rests, in my mind, on the notion that the media aren’t swallowing the nonsense he spews — and the lies he tells — about the “fantastic” job he and his team are doing. They are seeking to fill in the spaces left open by the president and his team.

Trump says the disease is “under control.” The media go to expert sources who report that, nope, it’s untrue. The disease is far from being controlled, contained or confined.

The media’s reporting of seemingly separate stories are tied in varying ways to the coronavirus crisis.

That’s OK with me. The media are doing the job they are empowered to do. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects them from government interference. Over the generations since the founders wrote the amendment, it has been generally accepted that the Constitution also offers a shield against politicians’ bullying and coercion.

Donald Trump’s constant criticism is blatant form of bullying that cannot be tolerated. He won’t stop the attacks, given that they play well to the ignorant wing of his political base, the know-nothings who believe Trump’s ridiculous assertions that “fake news” is actually false, when in reality it merely is news that isn’t favorable to their hero.

The media are doing a great job covering a story that needs a free press now more than ever.

medical news

C’mon, Mr. POTUS, show us the proof of what you’re implying

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For crying out loud, Mr. President, what in the world are you trying to do?

You consider yourself a wartime president, that you’re the commander in chief of a nation at war with an “invisible enemy,” the coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the globe.

When you are going to start acting like a wartime president? Ever?

You’re implication today that New York hospitals are peddling hospital masks “out the door” is despicable. You made that statement without an ounce, a scintilla, a shred of evidence. It’s yet another disgraceful bit of rumor-mongering for which you are becoming infamous.

I want to remind you of what you said: “How do you go from 10 to 20 to 300,000? 10 to 20,000 masks to 300,000. Even though this is different. Something’s going on. And you ought to look into it as reporters. Where are the masks going? So somebody should probably look into that.”

What do you mean “something’s going on”?

Wartime presidents don’t hurl accusations at first responders, at health care providers, at politicians from opposing parties. They open their arms and tell all Americans that it’s time to join the battle together, to fight the enemy on a united front.

Your remarkable accusation — and that’s how many of us are reading it, as an accusation — flies directly in the face of the things that a wartime president must do.

What’s more, this implication that someone is stealing the masks demands that you provide some sort of evidence of its veracity. Oh, and your suggestion that hospitals are “hoarding” ventilators? That is equally despicable. Good grief, man!

I’d say “Shame on you,” Mr. President … except that you have no shame.

I’ll say it once again. You, sir, make me sick.

national news

There goes the Easter timeline for returning to ‘normal’

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Donald Trump said this, among other things, at a White House briefing today on the coronavirus pandemic:

The modeling estimates that the peak in death rates is likely to hit in two weeks. I will say it again. The peak, the highest point of death rates, remember this, is likely to hit in two weeks … Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to April 30, to slow the spread.

Are we clear? Here’s what it means to me. The Easter timeline that Trump had laid out for a possible return to “normal” economic behavior is a goner. Easter arrives on April 12.

The president today said that the Easter recommendation was an “aspirational” date. He “aspired” to return to normal activity by that date. Trump denied ever suggesting it would be a firm date. Whatever it was, the Easter suggestion received plenty of push back from medical professionals who interpreted it as more than “aspirational” and said it was unrealistic to expect any sort of relaxing by the time of the holy holiday.

What now?

I’m going to heed Dr. Anthony Fauci’s pearl of wisdom about timelines. He said that the coronavirus doesn’t heed human estimates on when things would occur; the virus sets its own timeline. Fauci, the nation’s premier infectious disease expert, knows his business, which means that we need to heed all the estimates that come forth with a serious dose of skepticism.

As for any talk of the pandemic lessening, subsiding, dissipating … it ain’t happening, at least not in the immediate future.

I fear we have a lot more pain ahead of us. As for when we know when the end of the pandemic is at hand, well … none of us ever has lived through anything like this. I just hope we will know it when it gets here.

medical news

Fauci: U.S. pandemic death toll could hit 200K

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Dr. Anthony Fauci is speaking — and please pardon my paraphrasing a well-worn cliché — truth to ignorance.

The nation’s top infectious disease doc has declared that the worldwide coronavirus pandemic could kill as many as 200,000 Americans and could infect millions more of us before it is finally brought, um, “under control.”

I fear the doctor is right. I also fear the man for whom he works — Donald Trump — is dead wrong when he keeps up the happy talk about what a “fantastic job” everyone is doing to stem the killer tide.

The U.S. death count has surpassed 2,000. It is climbing rapidly. The worst still hasn’t yet arrived. I am among millions of Americans who are waiting anxiously for the worst to get here. I’ll say to the worst: You may leave now.

It doesn’t matter one little bit to me that a 200,000-person casualty count isn’t the worst such incident to afflict the United States. The Centers for Disease Control said the 1918-19 flu pandemic killed more than 650,000 Americans; what’s more considering that our population then was far smaller than it is today, that death count becomes even more staggering.

Still, we are facing a potentially terrible time of it as the COVID-19 strain of the coronavirus does it filthy work around the world.

I no longer want the president of the United States to boast about what a great job he is doing. I want him to speak the truth.

local news

UFO spotted from backyard!

It’s time for a random thought and time to steer away from pandemic madness.

Here it comes …

I walked into my backyard the other evening. The sky over Princeton was clear. I looked up and saw two blinking lights. I don’t know what they were. It was dark, man! I couldn’t discern the source of the lights.

The random thought? Were they unidentified flying objects? Yes, I submit. They were.

Which brings me to the point of this mindlessness: When are UFOs no longer UFOs? Which brings me to another point: If I see a UFO and I determine that it is a vessel that has flown to Earth from some extraterrestrial location, is that a UFO? Of course not! I will have identified it as a space ship from some other place.

Thus, I fear we have misapplied the term “UFO” to mean something that it shouldn’t mean. UFOs from beyond our solar system aren’t UFOs if we know what they are.

OK, I’m now done with this random thought.

The pandemic craziness remains to occupy my worrying moments.

national news

When will Trump act like a ‘wartime president’?

Donald J. Trump calls himself a “wartime president.” He says he is fighting an “invisible enemy.” As near as I can tell, the fight has just begun.

When, I have to ask, is Donald Trump going to start acting like a “wartime president”? When will the commander in chief cease with the phony happy talk and the hollow boasts about what a “fantastic” job he and his response team are doing in fighting the coronavirus pandemic?

My guess? He won’t stop the false bravado. He won’t in effect declare a state of war against this invisible enemy. Why? Because doing so just might send a signal that he and his team haven’t done quite as good a job as Trump keeps saying they have done.

Moreover, a wartime president doesn’t pit Americans against each other. He doesn’t criticize politicians from the opposing party. A wartime president calls all political leaders — from both parties — into the same room and talks candidly to them about the challenges the nation faces.

A wartime president calls a truce with governors and mayors who are struggling with their own battles. He offers to provide unquestioned, unqualified support in their battles.

A president at war with an invisible enemy damn sure doesn’t condemn the media — print, digital or broadcast — that are doing their job in reporting the progress of the battle to the public.

Are we at war, Mr. President, with a common and deadly enemy? Or are you at war with those who merely question the manner in which you are behaving?

State news

Texas AG: Gun shops are an ‘essential’ business … yikes!

I suppose you can chalk this one up as an “only in Texas” kind of thing.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has determined that gun shops are an “essential business” and therefore can remain open while other businesses are being shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic.

There is something kind of weird about Paxton’s decision, which countermands a statement issued by the mayor of Lubbock, who determined that gun shops in the West Texas city are “non-essential” and should close during this time of crisis.

How do we define essential? The way I define the term, that would include businesses that sell food, medicine, various household cleaning supplies.

But … guns? Seriously? Ken Paxton thinks that guns count as something Texans need to purchase.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott hasn’t issued a stay-at-home order for all Texans. He has left that decision up to local governments, some of which have been proactive; others have been, well, not so much.

State Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican, asked Paxton for a ruling after the mayor made his determination. I guess Burrows got what he sought.

I just find Paxton’s decision to be peculiar … although not the least bit surprising. Gotta have them guns at the ready, right? I mean, we just don’t have enough of ’em out there already.