Post 49 - April 29, 2020
Day 49…
Michael and I got our virus test-results back.
Drum roll…
As we expected, both of us tested negative for the virus and positive for the antibodies - meaning we don’t HAVE it, but we HAD it.
Michael has more antibodies than I do, which I guess makes sense because he had a worse time of it than I did. Worse being a relative term given that neither of us had it badly at all.
What do we do with this information?
Well, first of all, these results are not fully reliable.
The tests, themselves, are not yet approved by the FDA.
The testing site claimed that the test was 99% accurate. I have no idea what they were basing that assertion on. We are taking that with a grain of salt.
As is being widely reported, there is no confirmation that having the antibodies protects you from getting the virus again.
So, what do we do with this information?
I guess nothing.
Yet.
When everything closed down, that week’s issue of NEW YORK magazine had a cover that consisted of a scrawled magic-marker drawn “Don’t Panic”, with a line through the Don’t.
That cover is still inside almost every closed newsstand display case, so I see it every time I go for a walk.
It’s like a subtitle to living in New York during a pandemic.
Don’t Panic or Panic?
(Hint - DON’T panic.)
There is an interview in the issue with writer Emily St. John Mandel who wrote the novel STATION ELEVEN about what life is like twenty years after a virus wipes out 99% of mankind.
(As good as it is, now is probably NOT the time for anybody to read STATION ELEVEN.)
In the interview Mandel says, “There’s something almost tedious about disaster… At first it’s all dramatic, but then it just keeps collapsing.”
Yesterday, my sister and I were talking about what we were doing, and we agreed that it was taking days to accomplish even ridiculously simple tasks.
One day, I wake up and notice from the bed that one of my socks is under the dresser.
On the second day, I think, “I should pick that up.”
On day three, I decide to get it but as I start to crouch down, Michael calls from the other room that lunch is ready.
The fourth day, I resolve to finally get it, so I go into the bedroom, crouch down and pull the sock out. As I do, though, I notice that there’s a pencil that’s fallen down the back and is lying on the floor up against the wall and I think, “I should pick that up.”
For those of us who are not working and just staying at home, there’s an overwhelming sameness to every day.
The idea of a weekend has evaporated.
Every day is exactly the same as every other day.
Somebody I don’t know messaged me recently and said that while they liked my posts, they thought that I should avoid expressing political views because they are divisive.
All I can say to that is that the position we are all in today is a direct result of politics.
We have experienced an almost complete lack of federal leadership from this crisis from the beginning.
Huge mistakes were made.
We continue to get mixed messaging, pollyanna expressions of false optimism and outright lies from Washington.
The Republicans are in power, so the responsibility falls to them.
That’s what leadership is.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.”
We don’t have anything close to that coming from our President.
Our current federal leadership continues to do a dangerously inadequate job.
It’s not just the Republicans.
It’s not as if the Democrats are doing anything other than running a kind of desperate defense against whatever is coming their way.
Our federal leadership is failing us.
Badly.
They are dividing us, and it MUST STOP.
We have to make them stop.
Yesterday, Vice President Pence visited the Mayo Clinic and refused to wear a mask.
That went contrary to every regulation the hospital has.
That went contrary to everything that even the White House’s own health experts are saying we should all be doing.
Yes, there are people who disagree with wearing masks, but for better or for worse, for now that is what has been agreed is something that we should all be doing when we are out of our homes.
To protect each other.
Pictures of the Vice President of the United States not wearing a mask IN A HOSPITAL, sends a message to everybody in the country that we don’t need to do that.
Pictures of the Vice President of the United States not wearing a mask IN A HOSPITAL, sends the message that this virus isn’t serious and that the safeguards can be ignored.
Optics are everything.
It is easier to look at a picture than it is to read an article.
That is a small but concrete example of leadership failing.
Politics is completely intertwined with this virus.
There is no escaping it.
The Republican response to COVID-19 has been a failure.
Would the Democrats have done any better?
We will never know, but I will say this, how many people do you know who died from Ebola in 2014?
Yesterday, we cleaned the bathroom.
I mean really cleaned it.
Top to bottom.
In the tub, scrubbing.
We completely disinfected the cat’s litter box - brand new litter.
It was all long overdue.
It felt good to do that.
I am going to get something else done today, too.
It’s time.
First, though, there’s a pencil underneath my dresser that I have to get.