Quarantine - Day 20

The Costumer practices proper social distancing

Today was another warm and sunny day. Instead of getting out and taking it in, I decided first to do a little clean up of some of the changes to our website by illustrating some quick redirect pages featuring characters from our books. I just needed four little illustrations; it shouldn't be a problem. My slow, creaking computer changed all that. It took the entire day. Ella was outside with friends all day (they have all gone the same amount of time in the same building with no infection). Laura organized closets and later sat with Abbie trying to figure out how to fit a desk in her room given the constraint of not being able to enlarge the room. There’s no easy answer to that riddle. In the evening, I went out for Chinese wearing a mask and gloves and feeling a bit silly as I only saw one other person along the way with a mask.

This evening I couldn’t help but play the blame game. I watched a CBS interview of Bill Gates from yesterday where Gates was asked several times why we weren’t better prepared and if the government had dropped the ball. Gates made attempts to be as neutral as possible and be magnanimous, but as someone who has been preaching the gospel of pandemic awareness for a number of years now, he couldn’t help to let a little frustration show at how this thing has totally upended everyone’s life, and how we are not where we need to be in our response measures. Bill Gates has been doing the research as well as working in this field for long enough to know what he is doing and he knows a number of leading experts. The US had the knowledge base, the tools, and the people to beat this thing, but none of it was well utilized, and continues to be under utilized.

On February 7th the president of the United States Tweeted that the virus should be gone as soon as the weather warms. This week he stated that he never said this. To this, I can only say if he is going to create his own reality, I wish he would create one where nearly 8,500 Americans aren't dead due to our government’s slow response.

On February 11th, the hapless, stumbling, incoherent Trump Administration announced budget cuts of $3 billion to NIH and a 19% cut in the CDC’s budget including a $25 million drop in public health preparedness. This was the real official response to the pandemic by the administration. By that time, China was locking people in their own homes by force.

On February 24th, Trump Tweeted that the virus was under control and that the stock market looked great!  February was a lost opportunity as was January to steer this away from our shores.   I can’t help but think that our president and our government have failed us yet again.