Pandemic Panic!

The incompetence of the Trump administration will undoubtedly result in the deaths of thousands of Americans. No surprise there. However, let’s take a look at why people should not be panicking.

1.  Although it has been estimated that perhaps as many as 100 million Americans might contract the virus; it is also estimated that most of them will not suffer major medical consequences.

2.  Children tend to be somewhat more resistant to this particular coronavirus than the rest of us. They are less likely to contract it. If they do contract it, unless they are medically fragile, they are unlikely to suffer anything more than flu like symptoms. In other words, this particular disease is less threatening to children than most.  Of course you should take all precautions to insure that your children do not become ill, but if they do, it is less a danger to them then it is to older people.

3.  Even if the maximum number of Americans become infected, the death rate is expected to be only about 3.4%. That is much higher than the usual flu death rate and is very serious. However, it is not the sort of plague you see on television and movies. The end of the human race is not nigh. Civilization will not collapse. This is not the Spanish flu of 1918.

4.  Those few who  are at serious risk are those are in one of two categories. They are either disadvantaged with a compromised immune system or they are elderly. I am both.  Yet I’m not panicking.

Finally, let me observe that that the biggest problem you can expect to have with toilet paper and water is what to do with the huge stacks of them you have squirreled away in your garage. I can understand the hand sanitizer situation, but even that’s ridiculous. Washing your hands is much more effective as a method for preventing the spread of the virus.  There is no known shortage of soap or running water in sinks at this time. The CDC does not expect there to be a shortage of either.  However it wouldn’t surprise me if sinks and soap  start disappearing from hardware stores and grocery store shelves. That would make as much sense as the toilet paper/water thing.

This is bad, yes. Still, this is not a disaster. I suspect people are more likely to injure themselves fighting over stocks of toilet paper and water than they are to actually be damaged by the disease itself. So as the Scriptures ought to say, but regrettably don’t, panic not lest ye should be panicked.

Nature Red In Tooth And Claw

Tennyson's pre-Darwin observation on the struggle for survival is on target today. We have moved into the new home and we love it here, but there are still so many things to do. Everyone's overwhelmed and struggling hard to keep going and in the midst of this the children are forced to deal with their mother's battle to survive.

In the past few days she has been in and out of surgery several times with no surgery actually performed. As far as I can tell the problem is at once simple to state and very difficult to resolve. It seems that the situation entirely a matter of playing the odds. 

The MERSA in her leg is continuing to spread and cause more and more damage.  The terrible choice is to remove the leg or let the MERSA eventually kill her. However, her heart is in such bad condition that the anesthesiologist does not want to put her under for fear that she will die as a result.

So what is worse? What is the best bet for her to survive? It really isn't all that clear.  The kids are very upset with the hospital, understandably so. But I think the doctors are truly doing their best. The surgeon wants that leg removed so that he can control the infection. But when they bring her into the operating room the anesthesiologist sees that she is not in condition to survive being rendered unconscious. As horrible as it is for everyone, I hardly think the doctors are being callous about this. Instead, I expect they are agonizing over this terrible decision.

We have just heard that she is going into surgery once again. Whether the surgery will actually be performed and whether she will survive it are open questions.

To get back to Tennyson, when we look at the world we see its beauty. That beauty is real. But we usually neglect to see the ugliness that lies underneath it. We struggle and we do our best we try to find what joy and happiness we can. We are not wrong to do so. But the brutality of the battle to survive is always ready to make itself known.

The Times That Try Men's Souls

A Facebook post to my middle girl, whose husband is fighting cancer:

In your grief and struggles, remember, we are with you. 

 When the American Revolution was going badly and many were thinking of just giving up and going home, Thomas Paine wrote the following:

These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Take those words and realize that these are the times that try your soul and that cancer, like hell, is not easily conquered.

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The Joys of Privatized Health Care

From theLA Times:  Our 7-year-old daughter awoke screaming and could not be comforted or touched. We took her to the emergency room.
  Now our insurance company is denying the visit, saying that  it wasn't medically necessary for her to be seen in the ER. Yet the emergency room physician considered a spinal tap to rule out meningitis. How could this visit not be necessary?

What's not to love about private insurance? No government rationing of care, just money grabbers rationing of care.  7 year olds don 't need medical care, and they csn't pay for it anyway.  They just mooch off their parents.  Little socialists!

I have a new TwinTurbo WaterPik shower massage. This is a direct result of my Moen  showerhead finally falling apart. Considering that it wasn't new when I moved here, and I moved here 12 years ago, I can't really complain. When I first used the new showerhead, I was pleased to find that it gave me the strongest massage yet.  I depend upon that due to my arthritis and general muscle aches and pains. My big complaint has always been, why isn't this shower massage stronger? 

When I first used the new unit, I was pleased, it was stronger than any I had used  before. But it still wasn't strong enough. Then I realized that there was a leak in the hose connection.It turned out at the washer was damaged. A quick trip to Walmart and that was corrected.  With the leak blocked, the massage spray was much more powerful.  

To all of you It may not matter. But I am happy!

The almost universal declarations of the pundits indicate the Republicans are rejoicing at their amazing success in the November elections. After all, they endlessly repeat that the American people are totally on their side and utterly reject everything Obama stands for. I think the Republicans may well wake up after the November elections are actually held and find that the American people are divided on these issues and that the Democrats are still in power and may even have made some modest gains. Gains are not likely but I simply don’t see the Republicans succeeding with their hysterical attacks and exaggerations.

I used to despise both parties equally, but in the past three decades the Republican Party has steadily become more and more extreme, more convinced that the demagogue is the true voice of the American people. This has become so fundamental to the Republicans that they have begun to purge their party of those not regarded as sufficiently extreme. It has been pointed out out that Ronald Regan would be purged under the draconian standards considered acceptable to party loyalists today.

I said it during the first term of Bush Jr. and I will repeat it now. The Republican Party, if it is not to become a forlorn memory replaced by a less fanatic new political group, must put its extremists back on the extreme wing and return its base to those voters who are center right. When Members of Congress shout out epithets and make wild accusations as a regular part of their interactions with the public, it is time for a serous change.

The Founding Fathers, as a whole, hated the idea of parties and partisan politics, but however undesirable, they proved to be inevitable. Only George Washington himself could stand above such nastiness. As soon as he retired the demagogues took over. Adams and Jefferson split over the vulgarity of campaign politics and remained alienated for years. Adams’ wife never forgave Jefferson, even after her beloved husband had done so. It is true that things were even more nasty in those early years than they are now, but the Bookings Institute and another think tank, whose name escapes me, researched the matter and concluded that Congress is more antagonistic and acrimonious today than it has been since the 1890’s. Sounds right.

I am not saying that the Dems have gotten any better than they were when I damned both parties. I am saying that the Republicans have begun to sound more like the John Birch Society than one of the two parties who represent the voters. My enemy is extremism. When any party becomes extremist, it becomes my enemy. Add to this the incredible hubris of the Republicans and I believe that the gods will not tolerate or reward such behavior. The American people are divided on the issues today. Many are going to extremes and are terrified of the future. Yes, that is true. but for the Republicans to declare that therefore all Americans hate the Democrats and love the Republican efforts to neuter governnment is to ignore the rest of us. Note to the Right: I am an American too. You can declare members of your party who dare to disagree with you to be Republicans in Name Only, but you can’t take our citizenship away because we aren’t right wing extremists.

It is hubris, overweening arrogance which offends heaven. Believing your own propaganda is not an effective long term strategy. It sometimes works for the short term, but eventually it brings you down. Nixon fell because of this error and Bush and Cheney destroyed their hope of a positive legacy in history in the same manner. It is possible that the panic and fear mongering will work in November, but it is also possible that enough of the American people will tire of being told to panic and despair that it will backfire.

Health care may yet be Obamas’s Waterloo, but it is entirely possible that he will turn out to be the Duke of Wellington. .