Morning statistics – State of emergency for fifty states – Easter’s ambiguous reputation – Why social distancing guidelines are in effect – Lou Dobbs – Decreased pollution – Death of an ER doctor – A lively party in California – Fauci and Birx working under difficulties – Donald Trump’s personal insecurities – How these make him a failed leader – Contrast between Trump and Queen Elizabeth II – Evening statistics
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 1,789,985; # of deaths worldwide: 109,691; # of cases U.S.: 530,006; # of deaths U.S.: 20,608. Many new cases, but on the bright side the increase in the number of deaths since last night is lower than before.
There is now a state of emergency declared for all fifty states at once. It is the first time in history that this has happened.
Today is Easter Sunday. I’m in two minds about this holiday. Theoretically the liturgies recited at the services should be admonishing the congregations not to allow themselves to have their passions whipped up by unscrupulous demagogues to the point of their participating in lynching and judicial murder. But in practice it has not worked out that way. On the contrary, the services have often been used to kindle the most vicious of hatreds and to foment the same kind of mob violence that played such a prominent role in the execution of Christ. And it is still going on today, albeit to a lesser degree than in earlier epochs and repudiated by a handful of churches here and there. So it is not surprising that Jews in general tend to regard this holiday with a degree of suspicion. In fact,
We withstood Christ then? be mindful how At least we withstand Barabbas now!
(Robert Browning, “Holy Cross Day”)
On the other hand, Easter is the source of many parades and gatherings and feasts and numerous other events in which people are made easily and carelessly merry and that are a source of delight to children in particular. People don their new spring outfits and families get together; in this country the gambolings of the Easter bunny are eagerly looked forward to by thousands of children, and there is generally a lot of festivity and food and laughter. Sadly, all of these must be foregone for now. Believers among Christians have been harder hit than believers among Jews this year. While there are certainly some special services at the synagogue for Passover, the focal point of the holiday is the seder, which is celebrated at home. To be sure, the big family gatherings that are the usual feature at this time of year had to be given up, but at any rate individual households could celebrate the ceremony. Easter, however, is emphatically a more communal affair.
LF, daughter of a hiker friend and with whom I have hiked myself on occasion, is a prominent surgeon. She has posted a Facebook entry urging that the social distancing regulations in effect are not merely for self-protection but for the protection of others. I have not entirely lost sight of that. It is a hardship to avoid people, especially the people I know well, but I have no wish to endanger them by any carelessness on my part. I am not unduly worried about contracting the virus myself, although naturally I would prefer for it to pass me by. I am quite healthy and have none of the underlying conditions that can make the disease so deadly. Even so, no one seems to know with certainty what the after-effects will be. Still, the main issue in my case is not to infect others; it is, as I know, perfectly possible to have the disease without being aware of it for two weeks or more. Many have infected others while they were still asymptomatic. This isolation has been difficult in many ways, but it must be endured if the epidemic is to be contained at all.
Lou Dobbs, a Fox News presenter who has steadily maintained that the virus is a hoax overblown by the media, has tested positive for the virus and has been in self-quarantine for three weeks.
The inhabitants of heavily polluted cities such as Beijing, Sao Paolo, Mumbai, etc., are seeing clean air for the first time in decades. I remember visiting Beijing in 2000, where for the first time in my life I saw a brown sky. Commentators are reporting that the air is now quite clear and the sky has returned to its natural color. The implication is that a trifling pandemic or so does wonders for a city’s appearance. I can foresee the time when dedicated environmentalists will be sighing for the good old days when the virus was at its height.
New York City has over 6,000 deaths, and it is unclear why its mortality rate is so much higher than that of the rest of the country. Population density has something to do with it, but the virus has ravaged Queens more thoroughly than Manhattan, even though Manhattan is the more densely populated borough of the two. New York City has provided us with the first casualty among American ER doctors: Frank Gabrin, who on account of the general shortage in masks was forced to use the same mask for several shifts until it provided virtually no protection. This episode, as we know from a message texted to a friend expressing concern about the lack of medical supplies, occurred on March 19th. He displayed symptoms of the disease on March 26th, was confined to his bed on March 29th, and died on March 30th. His last moments were especially traumatic; he woke up in the morning gasping for air; his anxious spouse immediately called 911 and a close friend for help; by the time they arrived he had already passed away in his spouse’s arms. Arnold Vargas, the spouse, also contracted the disease but eventually recovered. They had been married for only seven months.
A very large party of about 400 people was held in California in violation of the stay-at-home order, and sure enough it came to grief, although not in the way that one might have expected. The party was as “lively” as the one provided by Judge Brack in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and it ended in the same way – with gunfire. Six people were shot, none of them with life-threatening injuries. No arrests have been made as yet, but no one is cooperating with the authorities, not even the victims.
Dr. Fauci says that the virus appears to be slowing down and that the country could open again to some extent next month. Fauci also confirmed that Trump initially pushed back when recommendations came earlier in the year to shut down all but the essential businesses. So this report about a potential return to normalcy in May could very well be a sop flung to Trump to keep him quiet.
I feel sorry for Dr. Fauci and also for Deborah Birx, Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the Trump Administration’s White House Coronavirus Task Force. They are obviously doing all that they can to help the nation through this crisis, but the need to stoke Trump’s ego continually must be a great distraction.
I have said much about the President, but I should clarify my position a little. I am not trying to demonize him. He is not a monster in the style of Hitler or Stalin or Mao Zedong. He would not consign hundreds of thousands of people to the gulag or round them up to be assassinated in concentration camps. He does have some redeeming qualities. While it is true that he treated his first two wives abominably, he appears to have a genuine attachment to Melania. He has donated his salary as President to the treasury. Supporters of Trump – and there are still many of these – say that people in the country should rally behind him in order to fight the inroads of the pandemic effectively; and they are right to an extent. If Trump were to show any degree of true leadership, most people would be glad to march under his banner.
But that is what he consistently refuses to do. At every turn, his insatiable craving for praise and approval obtrudes, perpetually hampering the efforts of everyone who is trying to do something useful. One has only to compare his behavior to that of Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth, at the age of 93, provided an impressive speech to bolster the spirits of the nation. In the course of that speech she referred to the first speech she made in 1940, not for the purposes of self-aggrandizement, but to remind the Britons of a time when a crisis of similar import threatened the well-being of the country and of the sturdy fortitude they displayed in responding to it. The emphasis was on her countrymen at large, not on herself. And I have no doubt that a majority of Britons will be inspirited by this example and that her efforts will play a role in inspiring others to imitate the courage shown by their parents or grandparents eighty years earlier.
Who can doubt that if Trump were to give such an address that the emphasis would be on what he alone has done and that no mention would be made of the labors of anyone else? or that he shuts his ears to anything that he does not wish to hear and penalizes anyone whose views do not echo his own? If I had the misfortune to be working in a capacity that involved coming into physical contact with him, I would strive to attract as little notice as possible, as in Griboyedov’s Woe from Wit: “God spare us from the worst of woes, the master’s wrath, the master’s love.” I have no doubt that such an attitude has infiltrated many Government departments as a result of his influence; it is clear that they are wilting after more than three years of capricious and arbitrary rule.
Today’s statistics as of 10:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 1,846,963; # of deaths worldwide: 114,101; # of cases U.S.: 555,398; # of deaths U.S.: 22,023.