Eight more days--October 26

Well, an Administration official finally admitted what many of us suspected: they aren't really trying to control the coronavirus. That is what Mark Meadows, chief of staff to our (Faux)President, said to a reporter yesterday. Like so much else these political hacks say it is--to a minor extent--right. The virus will do what a virus does and it will continue doing what is does (infecting hosts to multiply itself) until a good preventative is developed, i.e., a vaccine. But, 1)vaccines are not 100% effective, the seasonal flue vaccines for example are only 40-80% effective, 2) the fastest development of a vaccine (for the mumps) was 4 years, 3) several other coronaviruses (SARS, MERS come to mine) still have no vaccine and nor does HIV, 4) even with an all out push to produce an approved vaccine it will take even longer and cost more to get it widely distributed especially if multiple doses over a month or more are required. By the way, the stock market was down big time this morning mainly on the news that trials of a COVID treatment had been halted. So without a vaccine or proven effective treatments what do we do? No coherent answer from the politicos. Instead we get arguments which amount to a false dichotomy: the economy or our health and it seems they want us all, us little people who don't have access to a team of military doctors at the premier military hospital complex prescribing experimental treatments at fantastic cost to tax payers, to fall on our swords and "go to work."

Part of our conversation this morning after listening to the news this morning with the story that Pence is continuing with is campaign schedule after five of his close staff tested positive: 

 Me: I would like both #45 and Pence to come down with full blown COVID the day after losing the election and be in an ICU intubated for the next 3 months. Am I vindictive?

Mom: NO.

Everyone is looking for some return to what was once normal life. I have been skeptical from the beginning of the pandemic that that would be impossible. Too many of the old "certainties" are gone and won't be coming back. Schools as we knew them? Not as long as the virus is unchecked and no coherent plan is in place to deal with it. Supply chains all our stores depend on for their inventory? Blown all to hell. Our entertainments? Who wants to go to movies, or concerts, or plays now?  Even the events staged in the outdoors (marathons, Lalapaloosa in Chicago, etc.) have been postponed or cancelled. Even Macy's has cancelled this year's parade. What about sports? There is a court fight now about fall/winter high  school sports in Illinois. Basket ball is played in "bubbles." Football schedules, truncated though they are, are tentative depending on the results of COVID tests. Same for baseball. What comes out of this won't be what we had before. Which is what Rajan Menon says in his post for Tomdispatch today.