The picture darkens – National aversion to discipline – The oncoming football season – Consequences of being caught off-guard – In Catoctin Mountain National Park – Evening statistics
When I began this journal the entries were relatively light-hearted in tone, but that has become difficult to sustain over the past several days. Even as late as the middle of June – just two weeks ago – it was possible to believe that the effects of the virus, though far-reaching, were containable. But the lockdown restrictions almost entirely disappeared at about that time and now, for the past week, we have had a case count increase in excess of 40,000 per day. This increase is occurring as countries in continental Europe (excluding Russia) have a much lower rate of increase, perhaps less than a sixth of our own from the totals of all of the continental European nations combined. The EU at this point will not open its doors to American travelers, and it is difficult to blame them. They must look upon us as one of the least disciplined national groups in the world.
I have been severe upon President Trump throughout this journal and, as I think, justifiably; but in a sense he epitomizes the nation as a whole. The concept of deferring a gratification in the immediate present in order to provide for the future appears to be as incomprehensible to the populace at large as it is to him. The dangers of assembling in large groups during the pandemic have become apparent to the dullest comprehension; and yet people seem unable to resist any opportunity of doing so – whether it is in bars or in churches, on beaches or in vacation resorts, in political rallies or protest marches, in large private parties or official galas. Can we really be the same nation that a bare 80 years ago entered a world war and endured privations that lasted for years? – if not uncomplainingly, at any rate with a degree of stoicism. We now transform a trifle as light as air into a crippling imposition – as in, for example, the wearing of face masks. Service workers in stores have been assaulted on numerous occasions by customers for requesting them to comply with the face mask mandates.
In a similar vein, preparations are underway for inaugurating the football season, both for the NFL and on the collegiate level, without a single dissenting voice. One might say, for the sake of argument, that the games will be held out of doors and that the dangers of contagion may be substantially less than, say, a rally like the recent one in Tulsa; but it is significant that cancelation of the games for the coming season is not even considered as a possibility. Our health care workers are being strained to the point of collapse from the continual influx of new coronavirus patients on a daily basis; but we mustn’t allow a trifle like that to interfere with so vital a public amusement.
Actually I am in error when I say that there is no dissenting voice, for Dr. Fauci has dared to attempt to pull down the idols in high places by suggesting that it might be just as well not to have any games while the pandemic is still expanding. But you see that our President and the NFL officials and the college administrators and the coaches and the players are men of spirit, and will not of course allow themselves to be dictated to by a mere immunologist. And the majority of the populace is completely in accord with them, being addicted to the panem et circenses dispensed by the powers that be – and at this stage they appear to attach more importance to the circuses than to the bread.
There is a recent episode that could be taken as a kind of morality tale. Thomas Macias, a truck driver in California, was going out only when necessary from late March to early June. He was keeping himself in a kind of modified quarantine because he was overweight and had diabetes, which are the two main complicating factors for coronavirus patients. But at last he relaxed his guard and during the first week of June he attended a large party in Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. One of the guests had tested positive for the virus, but didn’t tell anyone until afterwards – believing that, as he was asymptomatic, he wouldn’t be able to infect anyone else. Macias was one of a dozen attendees who came down with the virus; and in his case it proved fatal. As in so many of these stories, the speed with which the illness progressed is startling. He met with his sister and brother-in-law on June 11th, before he was aware that he had been infected, although the brother-in-law thought that he looked ill. His symptoms worsened; he was tested for the virus on June 16th and received a diagnosis of positive on June 18th. On June 21st he had to be rushed to a hospital at 11:00 AM; he was put on a ventilator between 6:00 and 7:00 PM, and died by 9:00 PM.
One continues under the circumstances as best one might. I went out today to Catoctin Mountain Park, which is a convenient distance from my house (a little over an hour’s drive) and, despite its relatively low elevations, has several scenic overlooks, including the ramble over the quartzite ledge of Wolf Rock and the view from Chimney Rock of blue hills in the distance. I went in the clockwise direction, starting from the Visitor Center and going toward Cunningham Falls first, then along Hogback Overlook and Thurmont Vista. It was a considerably easier hike than yesterday’s but not without its challenges. The last part (the trail that parallels Rte. 77 back to the Visitor Center) is rockier than I remembered. Catoctin Mountain Park is not especially high in elevation, but even the slight increase in altitude and the abundance of shade made the temperatures there about ten degrees cooler than they were at home.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 10,592,673; # of deaths worldwide: 518,037; # of cases U.S.: 2,778,130 # of deaths U.S.: 130,785. We have had over 50,000 new cases today. The rate of new cases is holding steady in only nine states (Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Virginia) and decreasing in only three states (Maryland, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island) plus the District of Columbia. In all other states the rate is steadily increasing.