Tag Archives: pandemic

national news

National crisis needs to produce national sacrifice

National crises have this way of producing national unity and a call for national sacrifice to deal forthrightly with the challenges that arrive at our doorstep.

It is being argued that tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of Americans might lose their jobs as the coronavirus pandemic strikes at us.

The nation has a shortage of testing equipment, of surgical masks, hospital beds, medicine, various household supplies essential to people’s daily lives.

Cities, counties and states are doing what they can to wage war against what Donald Trump has called “an invisible enemy.”

There must be a national response. One is developing, or so it seems, but it is being cobbled together on a piecemeal approach. The president went from dismissing the pandemic as a short-term matter to something vastly different.

National sacrifice? How does that manifest itself?

They’re talking about paying out sums of money to every American household. How do we afford that when our budget has acquired a debt of $22 trillion and when the annual federal budget deficit has zoomed past the trillion-dollar mark?

Here’s a thought: an increase in taxes.

If the nation is going to respond completely to battle this pandemic, then it must be able to pay for it. No one wants to pay more in taxes, but given the alternatives facing us at this moment, there might not be any way for our federal government — for which we already are footing the bill — to avoid leveling a greater tax burden on us all.

Someone has to pay for all that we need. If not us … then who?

local news, medical news, science news

The ‘new normal’ might become just plain ‘normal’

I now want to share a bit of good news, given that we’ve been bombarded with a torrent of bad news of late.

The good news as I see it is that the “new normal” we are likely experiencing could become simply “normal” once the crisis subsides and ultimately drifts into history.

And it will. I am confident that the coronavirus pandemic will dissipate. It will take some time, which brings me to my point.

Which is that we are going to spend a lot of time and energy changing the way we do things.

There might be so much hand-washing, using sanitized wipes, extra precaution taken with “social distancing” that it will become second-nature even after we no longer need to do all these things.

My wife and I are wiping down fuel pumps, shopping carts, door handles … you name it, we’re wiping it down. “You never know who touches these things,” my wife says with her considerable wisdom. Indeed, we’re taking precautions we didn’t use to take.

We were walking through the ‘hood the other morning when we met a gentleman who works as a construction foreman on the houses being built in our Princeton, Texas, subdivision. He has an Oregon Ducks decal on the rear window of his pickup. I asked him, “Are you a Ducks fan?” He said he is. He then told us he grew up in Portland, attended Sunset High School, Portland State University — and attended the Pac-12 football championship game in the Bay Area this past season when the Ducks “destroyed Utah.” We told him we moved to Texas from Oregon in 1984. He’s a home boy!

I started to shake his hand, then pulled my hand back. “Hey, no sweat,” he said. “I get it.”

Handshakes with strangers well might become a thing of the past, too.

Yep, the new normal is upon us. It’ll take time to get used to this new way of living. I suspect if the crisis lasts long enough, what’s new will become, well, just plain “normal.”

local news, medical news

Confused over logic of all these closings

It seems almost counterintuitive.

Public schools are delaying the resumption of classes for weeks. Here in Princeton, Texas, the public school system will be closed to students, teachers and staff until May 4. It might last even longer. The end of the academic year comes normally at the end of May.

Why is it counterintuitive? The closures are coming as the world deals with the pandemic caused by the coronavirus outbreak. There’s a massive increase in “community spread” of the potentially deadly disease, meaning that individuals can get exposed merely by being in the presence of those who carry the virus. How does sending children, teachers and staffers home when they can expose themselves to the disease outside of a classroom?

I support what our public institutions are doing to mitigate the disease spread. Our sons are grown men; one of them is the father of a little girl who’s also staying home rather than going to school. She isn’t playing with her friends during this emergency situation; her parents are keeping their watchful eyes on her at all times. This is just one family. Are all of them as responsible? Obviously … no!

There will be more of this to occur.

As a retired American, I am trying to wrap my arms around this story as it develops. It is mind-boggling in the extreme. In all my years walking this good Earth, I don’t recall a crisis that measures up to this still-developing story. We’ve had crises with swine flu, with Ebola, various other influenza outbreaks, measles. We once had a polio crisis in this country. Have we faced the threat of a total shutdown? Have we faced quite the economic impact that this crisis is delivering?

It’s a scary time. Keep an eye on the children and those who might be at risk. In the meantime, I am seeking to make sense of it.

economic news

Thousand bucks to Americans? Thank you, Andrew Yang!

I truly cannot believe what I have been hearing today, that Donald Trump appears to be channeling a failed Democratic presidential candidate.

Businessman Andrew Yang campaigned for president promising to send all Americans a monthly stipend of $1,000; Republicans and even some Democrats blasted the idea as foolish. Yang ended his presidential campaign a few weeks ago.

Now comes the president of the United States pledging to send Americans a $1,000 payment to help deal with the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic that has thrown many citizens out of work.

My head is spinning!

The handout will cost about $1 trillion. Where does the president get the money? Well, I guess the Treasury Department just prints it.

I do not understand where this is coming from.

The first order of the federal government’s business is to protect us from disease and other threats. Donald Trump was a bit slow to come around, but he is starting to sound like someone who finally gets it. I hope he stays the course on that matter.

Hospitals are understaffed and underequipped, though, in advance of what most experts say will be a serious surge in coronavirus illness. What are the feds doing in that regard? How are they going to assist state and local governments shore up the health care provisions that will be required to deal with that surge?

A thousand bucks in our pockets won’t do the job.

Don’t get me wrong. Americans should welcome the dough … but the long game still needs definition.

medical news

Trump and his team are getting it … finally!

I want to hope that Donald J. Trump has turned the corner on this coronavirus matter, that he’s now taking it as seriously as it deserves to be taken.

I also want to believe the president when he says we’re in a war with an invisible enemy, a war he vows to “win.”

However, the turnabout has been so dramatic, so profound that I cannot stop listening to the nonsense he spouted not so long ago while the rest of the world was becoming rattled by the onset of the pandemic.

He went in just a matter of two weeks from proclaiming the pandemic to be a “Democrat hoax” to declaring war on this “enemy.”

How, too, can we forget what we have learned about how he dismantled the pandemic office set up during the Obama administration as part of the National Security Council? Trump took the office down, reportedly only because President Obama thought it was worthwhile.

Now we’re paying the price for such reckless petulance? Is that the deal? Consider what has been reported about how the Obama team sought to counsel the Trump team during the transition from one administration to another.

The Obama folks sought to brief the Trump folks about the potential dangers of pandemics, according to Business Insider. The Trump team, though, were disinterested in what they were hearing. BI reports that the new commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, actually dozed off more than once during the briefings he and others were getting.

As BI reported: “There were people who were there who said, ‘This is really stupid and why do we need to be here,'” the senior Obama administration told Politico.

OK, so it appears now that the Trump administration is starting — finally! — to understand the scope of the crisis that has erupted. I will remain hopeful that’s the case.

Why, though, did we have to endure the idiocy that came from our nation’s top government echelon?

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.