Doug's Darkworld

I’m paraphrasing here, but this is it folks. World War V. A pandemic in all but name. A novel coronavirus, Covid-19, is at war with the human race. A virus humans have never faced before, our immune systems are, well, more or less defenceless. A virus that  doesn’t give a shit about one’s ideology, religion, race, or political party. It doesn’t give a shit about anything but finding more hosts and passing itself on. And it’s winning. This. Is. Really. Happening.

We are facing a planetary emergency, and a lot of people aren’t getting it. Making partisan fun still. All of Italy is shut down trying to stop this thing, and Italy has one of the best healthcare systems in the world. Yet still seeing Americans saying things like:

“Maybe it’s worth the economy crashing and burning and my losing my retirement if Trump loses 2020.”

No, no it’s not. Especially not if hundreds of thousands of Americans die. We’re all on this boat together, no matter how much we may loath the captain.

I’m also still hearing the flu analogy. Along the lines of, look how many people the flu kills every year, and no one panics about it. Just a part of life. Yes, yes it is. And no, we don’t panic about it. We do however fight it tooth and nail, expending huge resources every year keeping it in check. It’s a terrible thing, especially to those who lose friends and loved ones to it. So a new “flu” is nothing to worry about? That’s the logic of a sociopath, a new “flu” would be a terrible thing, not something to just accept as part of life. No one is suggesting panic. Yes, this might bring down Trump. His administration is flailing. That’s nothing to be happy about! Our leader failed us and hundreds of thousands died! Woohoo! Wait, what? 

Trump’s retweeted the image above. As Trump sees himself, calm leader, in charge. Of course the implication is he’s serene about getting re-elected, but hey, a vision of Trump being a calm leader in a crisis, one can only hope. For example, if he now cancelled all his campaign rallies to prevent the spread of Covid-19, and sequestered himself in the White House to deal with the crisis, I would be impressed. A lot of people would. I’ve never had much hope in Trump, but I don’t want him to fail! This is your Waterloo Mr trump, only you get to decide if you’re Wellington or Napoleon.

That being said, one has to wonder what he was thinking tweeting about himself as Nero fiddling while Rome burns. (Yes, the bottom text line is an Alt-Right sentiment, but I digress.) Nero fiddling while Rome burned was a bad thing, not some calm leader in the face of crisis. Is Trump that ignorant of history … or of how to use Google? Or did he really mean he is going to party while Covid-19 reaps its death tax? Really? And has anyone explained to him what happened to Nero, the Caesar who allegedly partied while the city of Rome burned? He grew so unpopular because of his policies that even his supporters spurned him, and his attempts to flee failed because his guards refused orders to take him to safety saying: “Is it so dreadful a thing then to die?” (A quote from Classical Roman literature. Who knew Romans were the first Klingons?) Then his guards fled, and Nero killed himself to avoid being torn to bits by a mob.

So you’re really comparing yourself to Nero Mr. Trump? Oh well. When Trump was running for POTUS I half jokingly told peeps if he wins I will apply for a position in his administration. I even considered it after the election, but realized it was a long shot at best. And even if I did, I’m not much of a yes-man, so sooner or later (but probably sooner) I would have spoken my mind and said something “disloyal,” and that would have been that. Why yes, I worked in corporate America once. If I had ended up in the Trump administration, and somehow was still there, this would be my moment of truth. Step up to the plate Mr. Trump, stop obsessing on the Dems, partisan politics, or the election. Focus on Covid-19, this is the threat facing America that dwarfs other threats.

Or maybe the tweet is right. Nothing can stop what’s coming. Covid-19 isn’t going to go away by itself. Even if a country does manage to halt its spread, they can’t stay in their homes forever. And as long as Covid-19 is out there, it will find its way back. So all nations can hope to do is slow its spread enough that hospitals aren’t overwhelmed, and eventually enough of the population will have survived it to make containment possible. Hopefully aided by a vaccine at some point. This all assumes that people who survive a bout of Covid-19 are for the most part immune to reinfection. That’s the likely case. Knock on wood.

To conclude, it’s real folks. That’s the irony Trump missed in his quote, Covid-19 is coming, and nothing can stop it. If you’re over 60 you should especially hunker down, that’s from the freakin CDC. Convince me otherwise, I’d love to be wrong on this one.

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: Trump tweet.  Credit: Unknown, but my current understanding is Trump’s Twitter channel is an official US government publication, and thus Public Domain for most purposes. Including this blog. Quote: Used with permission.)