We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
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I'm not sure if it's unfortunate fallout or collateral damage, but I had a conversation with a friend who, like me, battled Covid. Their battle was much worse than mine as they were in an at-risk group. But they survived, as did other family members who eventually got milder cases. The net result is this person is now virulently anti-Trump, blaming him for a host of things that simply have no basis in reality. Previously, we'd shared a belief that Trump isn't our favorite president, he's badly flawed, and while I'd been more ambivalent, we basically weren't too far apart.
Yesterday, I realized his experience caused him to jump the shark and become a full-on Trump hater. I don't understand how you can blame Trump for a virus, or even the response to it. This is a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. H1N1 was, so far, more damaging than Covid worlwide, and it also cut a broad swathe across demographics. Covid has not finished its tour yet - but is clearly very specific in its opportunism. The primary difference that I have noticed in the nature and spread of H1N1 and Covid is that Covid erupted mightily in New York City (media capital) while H1N1 was more damaging to other regions of the US. There could be much to discuss here. What's clear is H1N1 will be seen as less damaging to the US because fewer people died (lower population in affected areas, more diffuse, etc.), while the media attention of Covid was heightened because our media elites felt threatened and made it the #1 story to scare people. Few people will remember Obama's slow (and ultimately meaningless) response to H1N1, nor will they remember that nobody blamed him for over 13,000 deaths. It was a virus.
A newly released study shows how widespread Covid likely is. I shared this with my friend, but was rebuffed entirely. No interest in viewing useful information.
The one thing we did agree on was that information, as presented by mainstream news, has been politicized and is, therefore, almost useless. My POV is that's the natural outcome of the last 30 years of increasing divides caused by the Leftists in the US, who have been using intersectionalism and engaged wedge politics. The POV of my friend is "it's Trump's fault. If we had a good leader, it would be managed better."
While we both agreed many of the people presenting information have an agenda, not the least of which is saving their job, I am of the view that government is not an impartial arbiter of information. The CDC, gutted or not (and I don't adhere to this belief) would not have done a substantially better job with Covid than we've already seen. After all, they are also government employees seeking to save their jobs (I've searched on H1N1 and found various results on infection rates and deaths...clearly the CDC is not viewed as the be-all-to-end-all manager of information). They cannot be as impartial as one would like to believe. I also pointed out other nations, with presumably more "advanced" health care systems are faring far worse than the US. So the idea the CDC could somehow be saving lives today is at best hypothetical and unprovable. At worst, it's an absurdist dream.
Where we diverged the most, however, was regarding the shutdown. It seems to me supporters of the shutdown view the economic damage as 'reparable' and just 'collateral damage' in this fight. They do not (as Dr. Bhattacharya does in the video), stop to consider the lives lost due to people avoiding hospitals for remedial items, because they fear Covid. They don't consider lives lost to (so far, anecdotal but understandable) stories of increased child abuse, spousal abuse, alchohol abuse, drug abuse and suicide. These are real lives that are lost not due to Covid, but the scare tactics used to 'save' us from Covid. If these see even a 10% increase, the last month had 600 additional alcohol deaths, 700 due to drug abuse, and 400 more suicides. There are no good statistics for domestic violence deaths, but the point is made. The longer this goes on, there more non-Covid deaths we will have. Given the long term economic damage, I'd take a SWAG and say the non-Covid deaths will eventually match Covid, as these issues build up, and we add others, such as starvation - no longer a sci-fi dystopian nightmare.
What is shocking to me is speaking with all my friends who agree that this situation is, or should be, non-partisan in nature. Most of us probably agree it SHOULD be. So why, then, do some who think this way make it political? Why would anyone blame Trump any more than they'd blame Cuomo or di Blasio? Political solutions are, by their very nature, trade-offs. You hurt some to benefit others. The premise is 'greater good' but this is not something easily proven or justified. It's just a political viewpoint.
I'm sad to see people take such sharp turns left. I may not like Trump, but I certainly don't feel his presence (or lack thereof, depending on your viewpoint) has meaningfully impacted this in any way. It is a virus. It does what viruses do. We might be able to mitigate it slightly, but we've developed tools to do this in the past to avoid shutting down altogether. I know lack of testing has limited our choices in those tools. If I can say one thing I appreciate about Trump, it's that he allowed governors to make their own choices based on their regional exposure and needs. Sadly, once a political path is chosen, it's hard to reverse course. I'm afraid that's true on a personal level, too.
I don't make my decisions, politically, based on a single item or a crisis. I look at a broad swathe of information and events. This single item, this crisis, may define politics for some people. But it's not one which alters my views fundamentally.
