[This post is from a series written during the first days of the COVID crisis.]
Here we are in California with no masks.
But I thought we had masks. Didn’t we stock up for the wildfires?
Oh, yes. We did.
Why didn’t we share them immediately, due to the state of emergency?
I don’t know. I guess because there is no Federal government, the people who are supposed to orient actions across states.*
And, why is that?
Because this administration doesn’t believe in a Federal government. It wants States to look out for themselves.
Ok…so…how is that working?
Well, the Governors stepped up.
Kind of a local and regional mobilization.
Everybody empty your pockets on the table and let's see what we have.
Well, we don’t have ventilators.
We don’t have hospital beds.
We don’t have protective equipment for our first line health care providers.
We don’t have enough COVID tests.**
…but we do have a single private testing center, in the City of Hayward, using a private lab, that is multiples faster than the official resources.***
…And why is that?
Why is everything ad hoc and left to our own devices?
Because no one thought to prepare—and—since everything is based on math and supply chains…how is that possible?
Helpful observations…
The whole situation is eerily outlined in the 2011 film Contagion, the one with Jude Law in it.
And then, of course, there’s the Walking Dead (2010 - present)...
…I mean, really.
Forewarned is forearmed.
I think one of the greatest challenges to our meeting this crisis is that despite our science (or because of it,) our society has forgotten how to “do” anything, unless it is something technical or highly complex.
Once, it was people and their knowledge that held institutional systems together. Over time, that knowledge was transferred to computers, and eventually, we lost the basic capabilities that were once performed by people.
Yet, in our arrogance, we claim greater competency while forgetting the fundamentals.
Take money, for example. The very system of money evolved from the relative agricultural stability that let us use the symbolic nature of a coin to represent a very real ability to purchase crops between harvests.†
Now, we‘ve travelled lightyears beyond that somewhat simple shared reality to a highly leveraged and abstracted financial system – with extreme rationales and justifications for every process – in every single possible way.
And so what?
What is the issue?
Well, whenever gravity pulls us down to earth, in the shape of an unsustainable system (Financial Crisis, Dot Com Bust,) or a…wait for it……pandemic, we see what the nature of the “true” systems that support our existence.
These are the ones that revolve around not doing the math surrounding contagion, not doing the math governing production, and devaluing the need to prepare…regardless of what the math is telling us. And what does that leave us with?…
Washing our hands, as much as is humanely possible, without sparking a new epidemic of OCD
Wearing masks for each simple trip to the grocery store…oh, wait…we don’t have masks, or only some of us do††
Not touching our masks, inside and out
Keeping six feet away from everyone, despite lines to get in and check out of each grocery store
Finding a mask, or goggles, if you can, because the eyes are as much a target as the face and nose
Wearing gloves, because, one, you touch everything, two, you keep touching your face, and three…have you ever counted the necessary steps in any given “point of sale” machine?
…touch pen…touch screen…one [“Do you want to donate?”] …two [Is this right?]…three times [Please confirm]…touch your wallet or purse…touch your card while swiping…touch the receipt from the cashier…then touch, touch, touch some other things on your way out…
…really?
In a pandemic, this design is inherently ridiculous, as are entry and check out lines, which become the primary risk area for each of us, every day we dare to venture out into our first world to forage for sundries and premium ice cream.†††
Meanwhile, are we making more tests?
YES!
Math again: are they numerically sufficient?
"Well, every little bit helps," but…NO.
Are they on par with OTHER countries?
“Ah…”, NO.
So what is going on here?
Is this the individualistic, go-its-own-way America at its finest?
Is this the best we can do?
…because the situation is playing out in realtime around us, and we get to be a relative part of it thanks to the connectivity of the internet and all of our devices.‡
Meanwhile, the Justice Department tried to tack on sweeping authoritarian powers to the COVID stimulus bill.‡‡
Again…really?
So we have to worry about totalitarianism now as well. Because people who do not know what they are doing will always find something else to do.
It’s magical.
So, what do we do?
Our destinies depend on a single touch of an un-wiped surface and the cooperation and thinking of an entire world.
Stand strong and take heart.
In this pandemic, we are both alone and together, separated and yet uniquely interwoven.
* And now they are having to bid against each other for vital supplies: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/31/new-york-andrew-cuomo-coronavirus-ventilators
** Old news, and we still don’t have them.
*** Bay Area site opens for coronavirus test without doctor’s order, one of first in state - SFChronicle.com, https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Bay-Area-site-for-coronavirus-test-without-15152209.php
† See Wikipedia, “Bronze Age: commodity money, credit and debt,“ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_money
†† As of Friday, April 3, the CDC changed its position to “let’s all wear masks.” https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cloth-face-cover.html
The Surgeon General even has a video of how you make one out of a T-shirt and two rubber bands. (!!?!!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPx1yqvJgf4
††† Stores all tape off standing distance, but still.
‡ Wow. Something finally working (knock on wood.) Designed for disorder, actually functioning…so, its possible.
‡‡ “Coronavirus: Congress pushes back on DOJ request for more powers in crisis,” Vox , https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/22/21189937/coronavirus-department-justice-doj-powers
‡‡‡ I should have said “Zoom Your Grandparents,” not “Skype.” I am not cool.
Science icon by Jacopo Bonacci, MI, Creative Commons, https://thenounproject.com/term/science/103308/