Joseph Stalin famously claimed, when confronted with his murdering of millions in the Soviet Union, “A single death is a tragedy and a million deaths are a statistic”. America has now nearly six hundred thousand fatalities out of three million dead deceased from Covid worldwide. The country is still recording up to seventy - five thousand cases a day, and nearly a thousand deaths. In twenty - two of the States the infection curve is upwards. Yet representatives of the Republican Party persist that the mitigation factors recommended by the Public Health officials are an assault on Americans’ freedom. The question is whether Stalin was right with his cynical calculation that massive mortality numbers are so mind numbing that they are regarded as statistics rather than a million single causes for outrage, mourning and empathy.
Forty percent of the country, in spite of the warning from the Director of the Center for Disease Control, Dr. Rochelle Wolensky, of “Impending doom” are calling the pandemic over. In fact they have denied there ever was a threat from Covid and lead by Trump, himself a Covid victim who subsequently was vaccinated in secret, have described the contagious deadly disease a “hoax” and made its existence a political divisive issue. Although since Biden has assumed office in a vaccination drive conducted like a military operation a quarter of the country has been fully vaccinated “Making America Great Again”, the threat as the increasing numbers indicate that the danger is far from over. The peril has been exacerbated by the growing number of variants of the virus. Some scientists fear that sooner or later the current vaccines will not prove effective against the mutating menace.
The “Never Vaccers” and the Republican politicians argue that it is “The Deep State” led by Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Democrats who are creating a crisis for political gain, not the virus. The battle against attempts to mitigate the pandemic is being framed as “taking away of freedoms”. Fauci who needs security as the result of the death threats against him is still the focus of attack including vitriol from Donald Trump who lumps him with the other “traitors” such as Mitch McConnell and the Governor of Georgia whom he maintains failed to prevent the Presidency being stolen from him.
WHERE THE REPUBLICANS STAND ON THE PANDEMIC
A heated scene took place during a committee hearing in the House of Representatives on the pandemic between Republicans and public health officials last week. What was most instructive as to where the Trumpists stand was the interaction between Congressman Jim Jordan and Dr. Fauci. The latter has been the face of Public Health ever since the crisis started fifteen months ago. (Incidentally, in papers relating to the Covid Crisis Management Team it was Fauci not Trump who proposed Operation Warp Speed). Trump relegated him as the months ground on and Fauci didn’t hesitate to contradict him. He has become more of a flashpoint since President Biden appointed him as his Chief Medical Advisor, regularly being attacked by Republican politicians and Fox News.
Jordan’s main claim to fame is his aggressive in your face support of Trump. He has been in Office since 2007 and has not introduced one piece of important legislation. Trump rewarded him with America’s highest honor for civilians, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In so doing Jordan joined George Gershwin, Neil Armstrong, Henry Kissinger, Martin Luther King, Billy Graham, Frank Sinatra, Mother Theresa, Lech Waleska, Colin Powell, Elie Wiesel, Thurgood Marshall, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter to name but a few.
In the over six minute altercation Jordan, his mask ostentatiously hanging below his nose, conducted himself in his characteristic aggressive in your face style. Fauci started off in his customary listening mode but as the Congressman pressed him harder and harder and louder and louder he took a more definitive determined defense of his position. A key fact deliberately ignored by Jordan is that Fauci and the Center for Disease Control can only make recommendations, the decision makers are in the main Governors of States and the President and his Administration has the bully pulpit.
Below are some of the key snippets from the hearing.
JORDAN: When can the nation begin relaxing physical distancing measured and mask wearing.
FAUCI: It….
JORDAN INTERRUPTING: What measure, what standard what objective outcome do we have to reach before Americans get their liberty and freedoms back.
FAUCI: The (recommended) restrictions will ease when the infections, which are rising across the country are low enough…
JORDAN INTERRUPTING: What is low enough give me a number. Fifteen days to slow the spread turned into one year loss of liberty, (The fifteen days was Trump’s personal recommendation).
FAUCI: You know your’e indicating liberty and freedom. I look at it as a public health measure to prevent people from dying and going to hospital. Your’e making this a personal thing and it isn’t.
JORDAN: It’s not a personal thing.
FAUCI: You know that is exactly what your’e doing. We’re not talking about liberties. We’re talking about a pandemic that has killed 560,000 Americans.
JORDAN: I get that…….
JORDAN: …….You don’t think American Liberties have been threatened this year Dr. Fauci?
FAUCI This will end for sure when we get the level of infection low…
The back and forth continued and even when Congressman Jordan’s time ran out he continued and had to be admonished by the chair.
The bottom line is that with more Americans dead from this virus than died in all the wars of the the twentieth century Jordan “gets that” but the wearing of masks, distancing and therefore not being able to gather in large numbers are freedoms more important. In fact the Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient doesn’t “get that”. Does it register that FEMA have had nearly a million requests for financial assistance for funerals following Covid deaths? Did he hear Dr. Birk, who was Trump’s “more compliant” replacement for Fauci as the scientific front, claim that had the Administration acknowledged and acted on the crisis hundreds of thousands of lives may have been saved.
So Jordan attacks Fauci and scapegoats him for the mess the Republicans are in. Fauci who has no decision making power. In fact the Governors are already opening up the States as a result of the high vaccination numbers, in spite of Dr. Fauci and the public health officials exhorting them not too. Rather than their elected representatives supporting life saving measures they are cheering them to “go back to normal”. Not wearing a mask is considered a badge of honor. Jordan is fighting for their deprived “liberties and freedoms”.
PRESENT SITUATION
Seventy - five thousand cases a day is way above the objective Dr. Fauci finally quoted to Mr. Jordan as “low enough”. Fauci postulated that at ten thousand a day it would be reasonable as that is the number which would be expected at the height of an influenza epidemic. The situation is complicated by the variants and the long time The FDA are taking to assess the J and J vaccine where six cases of severe clotting have occurred in the eight million doses administered. Even though vaccinations are up to four million a day that are being administered in a military type operation, it is not enough to prevent severe morbidity and deaths to continue in the next few months.
The Republican attitude is hard to fathom. The public in general is in favor of the mitigation initiatives. Of course the base of the GOP see this like their right to have guns of any sort or any type. It is a miracle that safety measures such as drunken driving, seat belts. and other “restrictions to freedom” ever became law. The irresponsible behavior of risking others lives by not being prepared to wear a mask is inexplicable and can only be because a public health issue became politicized. This effort was led by Trump and like in everything else for the most part the spineless Republicans just went along for the deathly ride.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Stalin’s dictum appears to be spot on.
It is hard to believe that this debate is rational. Rather it is part of the surreal landscape of Trumpism. The fight to control Covid and eradicate it is hampered by these, at kindest, bizarre definitions of freedom. More than likely they are part of the more bizarre attempt to keep the Trump mythology and cult alive. After all Presidential Medals of Freedom aren’t dished out lightly.
There is not going to be a soft landing from this crisis. Variants will continue to pop up. There are those businesses, places of entertainment and public places where there is going to be an insistence of ongoing mitigation. Even if by some miracle the disease was completely eradicated in the USA, other than Israel, the UK, Bahrain and Chile there is no place safe to go. Normalcy as once was known will never return. Maybe before getting onto a plane not only will Americans have to take off their shoes they will need a rapid Covid test.
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