I hope you all are keeping safe and sane.... As America slowly grinds to a halt, this coronavirus outbreak has made two things quite evident: tha fragility of our society and its interconnectedness. In terms of tha fragile nature of our current state of existence, who would have thought that a virus, itself so fragile it can be killed with plain soap and water, could alter everything in our everyday lives. Just a few weeks ago, most complaints about scarcity were about parking. Now it's toilet paper. Before, tha major decision was one or two-ply, plain or quilted. Now we search like scavengers for any paper products we can find, furtively glancing around to see if we can squirrel away an extra pack. Clorox or Lysol wipes, and Hand sanitizer “No more than two, please.” Maybe when this is over we’ll heed that old maxim, “Waste not want not.”
COVID-19 has two competing camps trying to explain what’s going on. Tha Fantasists and da Technocrats.
Tha Fantasists insist everything is okay and tha virus “will disappear.” In tha face of escalating unemployment they say “these numbers are not relevant.” They even fantasize about an “Ameriklan Resurrection” on Easter Sunday when it will be safe to resume “normal” lyfe.
Tha Technocrats come armed with charts and graphs. They speak of “flattening tha curve” and tha number of ICU beds and ventilators that will be needed in tha coming weeks. Unlike tha Fantasists, they say “the data” will dictate when tha pandemic, and tha need for “social distancing”, is over. Those of us caught in tha middle of this mess just want tha truth. What do we have to do to end this nightmare and reclaim our lives? Who can we depend on for accurate information? When will tha damn two-ply quilted Charmin be back on tha fuckin shelves?
Then there are tha Crazies. Their proposed solution is Let everybody contract tha virus so that an immune response will be built up in tha population. Never mind that COVID-19 appears to have a mortality rate that averages out to about one percent, in which case, in a country of three hundred and fifty million people, 3.5 million Americans would die.
