Journal of the Plague Year
May 16–21,, 2020
More Random Notes: The Descent Continues
Workers in Stores, Already at Risk, Confront Violence When Enforcing Mask Rules
Signs at a recent demonstration in Stuttgart listed the “worst dictators” in history: Bill Gates followed by Angela Merkel and, down the list, Hitler.
May 17 — — — For those of us who live in big cities, from a report in the Times
Cities, large and dense by definition, do not inevitably support explosive viral transmission. But factors that do seem to explain clusters of Covid-19 deaths in the United States are household crowding, poverty, racialized economic segregation and participation in the work force. The patterns of Covid-19 by neighborhood in New York City track historical redlining that some 80 years ago established a legacy of racial residential segregation.
May 18–21
Minorities Got Less Aid From Program For Businesses
A note on Trump and Obama: there’s a move afoot, led by Fox and highlighted by Karl Rove, to change the story again by saying that Obama’s HBCU Commencement Address was the first historically outrageous instance of a former President criticizing a sitting President.
So let’s get the facts straight: Obama didn’t mention Trump by name, and criticized the Administration’s response to the virus in very guarded and general terms, Trump, in contrast, and for the first time in American history, called an ex-President a “criminal,” and called for an investigation of his “crimes.” Here’s the point that can be missed: Obama was telling the truth, Trump was lying. In the era of bothsidesism, it’s easy to forget that that is always the most important distinction of all. The truth should always be told and retold; the lies of political propaganda, never.
News item:
“President Trump and some top administration officials seem to suspect that the number of Covid-19 deaths is being overstated”
No, they don’t “suspect” anything of the kind. They’re running the lie up a flagpole to see if anyone salutes it.
From Charles Blow on Trump’s Obama obsession:
“Trump knew the terrible legions of flaws he possessed and was incredulous that this black man could be devoid of any…So, he feverishly searched for error, sometimes inventing it, moreover projecting his own error onto Obama…Obama became Trump’s foil for personal reasons of racial and cultural insecurity. But Trump’s view of him perfectly aligned with a larger phenomenon: A significant swathe of white America grated at the uppityness of this black man who would set the tone for how Americans should behave, and his black wife who would lecture them about what to eat.”
‘Hang Fauci’ Sign Brandished Amid Lockdown Protesters Trump Hailed As ‘Great People’
“One thing I keep hearing, however, is that we must reopen for the sake of workers, who need to start earning wages again to put food on their families’ tables. So it’s important to realize that this is a really bad argument….For America is fully capable of shielding workers idled by the lockdown from severe economic hardship. As Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said in a TV interview aired Sunday, we can and should pursue policies that “keep workers in their homes, keep them paying their bills. Keep families solvent.” –Michelle Goldberg
The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan wrote: “Here’s a generalization based on a lifetime of experience and observation. The working-class people who are pushing back have had harder lives than those now determining their fate.” (Also faithfully reproduced by the inveterate creep Bret Stephens)/ However:
“The assumptions underlying this generalization are not based on even a cursory look at actual data. In a recent Washington Post/Ipsos survey, 74 percent of respondents agreed that the “U.S. should keep trying to slow the spread of the coronavirus, even if that means keeping many businesses closed.” Agreement was slightly higher — 79 percent — among respondents who’d been laid off or furloughed….Researchers at the University of Chicago have been tracking the impact of coronavirus on a representative sample of American households. They’ve found that when it comes to judging policies on the coronavirus, “politics is the overwhelming force dividing Americans,” and that “how households have been economically impacted by the Covid crisis so far” plays only a minimal role.” (Paul Krugman)
And at last:
The creator and manager of Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard says she was removed from that role after refusing to change data. ..
Rebekah Jones, the Florida Department of Health’s GIS (Geographic Information System) manager, was the brains behind the state’s lauded COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard….She told colleagues in a May 5 email first reported by Florida Today Monday night that her team was being taken off of the dashboard due to “reasons beyond my division’s control,” and that she no longer controlled changes made to the tool, including any potential “data they are now restricting.”
A real human being. They should invent a Cabinet department for her. Or name a medal in her honor and make its inaugural recipient.
But a late news flash: let’s also hear it for Jennifer Benson, the Michigan Secretary of State, and a Republican, who stood up on the Chris Hayes show and called out her President for his lie (she politely didn’t use that word) that mail-in ballots are susceptible to fraud. Never, not even one time, in her experience.
May 21, finally–and just so we don’t get our hopes up about the nation and our fellow inhabitants:
“Plandemic” stormed into people’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube feeds even though its claims were widely debunked and the social media companies vowed to remove the video. Yet it has continued spreading online, raising questions about how it might damage trust in the medical community and color people’s views on a coronavirus vaccine. I won’t say “read all about it,” it’ll just make you want to scream.
