I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to develop a way to understand
exactly what is happening. At times I’m remarkably calm about things;
at other times, I think we’re in the opening scene of a post-apocalyptic
movie where the world is falling apart and society is desperately
trying to maintain order and stability but to no avail.
Yesterday morning I finally hit the nail on the head and realized the following (which is from my Facebook feed):
I got the idea from a governor Cuomo press conference (God bless that
man, BTW). He noted that we will get through this but that it will
forever be with us — we’ll look back in 10 years and say, “I was doing
“X” during the pandemic.”
This statement implies that this is a
world-defining event much like WWII or (I hate to say it) the Great
Depression. It’s something that will change, well, everything.
Here are some of the things that are going to fundamentally change.
A big return of Keynesian economics. Almost overnight, Republicans
ditched their austerity mantra and quickly voted for a $2 trillion
stimulus. There was no talk of “we need to balance the budget;” instead
there was talk about keeping people whole.
A return to government expertise. Watching Dr. Fauci and other
experts during this crisis has been very comforting because they tell
the truth (which stands in stark contrast to Trump). Polls show that
the public trusts them. Once this is over, expect the public to become a
lot more comfortable with expertise.
A rise of teleworking: Modern technology allows people to work
remotely. I’ve observed there’s a clear generational divide regarding
this idea: old people dislike it, younger people are all over it. Once
this is over, expect this idea to become part of the modern workforce.
A huge rise in automation. One of the big problems with
manufacturing in the current crisis is that large groups of people have
to be in close proximity, which prevents social distancing. Expect
factories to adopt automation at a faster pace to ramp-up production as
this thing comes to an end. And this will lead to …
A future discussion and eventual adoption of Universal Basic
Income: I’m behind in understanding the specifics of this concept, but I
understand the basic idea, which is pure Keynesian in concept. Expect
this to become a commonly expressed idea.
A complete rethinking of the US health care system. Watching this
disaster unfold one thing has become very clear: the healthcare system
has to change in a big way. I have no idea what it will look like. But
it’s going to change.
This is what I see. Please add your comments below as to the changes
you think are coming because I certainly don’t have a monopoly on
observations.
Rim Country Gazette Blog Editor's observation: This nation will never take toilet paper for granted again.
Just in case you need a little certainty in life, you can usually
count on the National Rifle Association (NRA) to tirelessly advocate for
dollars over human lives. This time, the organization is bypassing the
tragic loss of lives resulting from the coronavirus pandemic in an
attempt to readjust the nation’s focus to the firearm industry. Yes,
that means a lawsuit, as The Sacramento Beereported.
The NRA, and several other supporters, filed a lawsuit Friday against
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other California officials for failing
to declare gun stores essential businesses in the state's stay-at-home order temporarily closing businesses without the essential designation.
"By the order of the Sheriff of Los Angeles County, gun and
ammunition stores are not considered essential businesses and must close
to the general public..." Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva
said in a statement Thursday. He’s obviously listed in the NRA’s
lawsuit, too, for enforcing the business closures.
"There are hundreds of businesses which, through no fault of
their own, do not fall under the governor's definition of critical
infrastructure," Villanueva said last week, according to
CNN. "As a result, I have instructed my deputies to enforce closures of
businesses which have disregarded the governor's order." Still, Jason Ouimet, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, whined
that municipalities are targeting "lawful gun stores for closure" and
"weaponizing their politics to disarm you and your loved ones." He told The Sacramento Bee “these
shameless partisans are recklessly promoting a gun-control agenda that
suffocates your self-defense rights when you need them most.” California really doesn’t have time for this. Newsom said during a press conference last week that an estimated 56
percent of the about 40 million California residents are expected to
contract the virus and 20 percent could be hospitalized as a result of
the virus. California is already reporting more than 5,000 coronavirus
cases and 121 deaths, the Los Angeles Timesreported Sunday.
In addition to that spiraling infection rate, many immigrants in the
state of more than two million undocumented immigrants fear what going
to the doctor may mean for their status in the country, a CalMatters
reporter pointed out. To that concern, Newsom didn’t have much of a
definitive answer but said the state believes in universal healthcare
and pluralism. "We believe in prevention," the governor added. "We
believe in reducing costs and advancing the health of all the residents
in the state of California."
NRA attorneys, however, stated in the lawsuit:
“The circumstances posed by the (COVID-19) outbreak are noteworthy, but
do not excuse unlawful government infringements upon freedom. In fact,
the importance of maintaining the ongoing activities of essential
businesses for the safety, health, and welfare of Californians makes
(the plaintiffs’) point: the need for enhanced safety during uncertain
times is precisely when (the plaintiffs) and their members must be able
to exercise their fundamental rights to keep and bear arm."
Brady, a gun violence prevention group told CNN the
NRA’s lawsuit is off-base. "In this time when we all need to sacrifice
to flatten the curve and stop this pandemic, it is disturbing that the
NRA won't budge from its overriding purpose -- to increase gun industry
profits at any cost," Brady President Kris Brown told the network.
"There is no constitutional right to spread coronavirus while shopping,
for guns or anything else.”
'If
somebody does not consistently parrot the president's proclamations
with adequate intensity, they are fired, or it is leaked that their
firing could be imminent at any time.' (photo: Yuri Gripas/EPA)
The Trump administration’s unprecedented
indifference, even willful neglect, forced a catastrophic strategic
surprise onto the American people
ast
September, I met the vice-president for risk for a Fortune 100 company
in Washington DC. I asked the executive – who previously had a long
career as an intelligence analyst – the question you would ask any risk
officer: “What are you most worried about?” Without pausing, this person
replied, “A highly contagious virus that begins somewhere in China and
spreads rapidly.” This vice-president, whose company has offices
throughout east Asia, explained the preventive mitigating steps the
company had subsequently adopted to counter this potential threat.
Since the novel coronavirus has swept the world, I
have often thought about this person’s prescient risk calculus. Most
leaders lack the discipline to do routine risk-based horizon scanning,
and fewer still develop the requisite contingency plans. Even rarer is
the leader who has the foresight to correctly identify the top threat
far enough in advance to develop and implement those plans.
Suffice it to say, the Trump administration has cumulatively failed, both in taking seriously the specific, repeated intelligencecommunity
warnings about a coronavirus outbreak and in vigorously pursuing the
nationwide response initiatives commensurate with the predicted threat.
The federal government alone has the resources and authorities to lead
the relevant public and private stakeholders to confront the foreseeable
harms posed by the virus. Unfortunately, Trump officials made a series
of judgments (minimizing the hazards of Covid-19) and decisions
(refusing to act with the urgency required) that have needlessly made
Americans far less safe.
In short, the Trump administration forced a
catastrophic strategic surprise onto the American people. But unlike
past strategic surprises – Pearl Harbor, the Iranian revolution of 1979,
or especially 9/11 – the current one was brought about by unprecedented
indifference, even willful negligence. Whereas, for example, the 9/11
Commission Report
assigned blame for the al-Qaida attacks on the administrations of
presidents Ronald Reagan through George W Bush, the unfolding
coronavirus crisis is overwhelmingly the sole responsibility of the
current White House.
Chapter 8
of the 9/11 Commission Report was titled, The System Was Blinking Red.
The quote came from the former CIA director George Tenet, who was
characterizing the summer of 2001, when the intelligence community’s
multiple reporting streams indicated an imminent aviation terrorist
attack inside the United States. Despite the warnings and frenzied
efforts of some counter-terrorism officials, the 9/11 Commission
determined “We see little evidence that the progress of the plot was
disturbed by any government action … Time ran out.”
Last week, the Washington Post reported
on the steady drumbeat of coronavirus warnings that the intelligence
community presented to the White House in January and February. These
alerts made little impact upon senior administration officials, who were
undoubtedly influenced by President Donald Trump’s constant derision of
the virus, which he began
on 22 January: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person
coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be
just fine.”
By now, there are three painfully obvious observations
about Trump’s leadership style that explain the worsening coronavirus
pandemic that Americans now face. First, there is the fact that once he
believes absolutely anything – no matter how poorly thought-out,
ill-informed or inaccurate – he remains completely anchored to that
initial impression or judgment. Leaders are unusually hubristic and
overconfident; for many, the fact that they have risen to elevated
levels of power is evidence of their inherent wisdom. But truly wise
leaders authentically solicit feedback and criticism, are actively open
thinkers, and are capable of changing their minds. By all accounts,
Trump lacks these enabling competencies.
Second, Trump’s judgments are highly transmissible,
infecting the thinking and behavior of nearly every official or adviser
who comes in contact with the initial carrier. Unsurprisingly, the
president surrounds himself with people who look, think and act like he
does. Yet, his inaccurate or disreputable comments also have the
remarkable ability to become recycled by formerly honorable military,
intelligence and business leaders. And if somebody does not consistently
parrot the president’s proclamations with adequate intensity, they are
fired, or it is leaked that their firing could be imminent at any time –
most notably the recent report
of the president’s impatience with the indispensable Anthony Fauci, the
director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
And, third, the poor judgments soon contaminate all
the policymaking arms of the federal government with almost no
resistance or even reasonable questioning. Usually, federal agencies are
led by those officials whom the White House believes are best able to
implement policy. These officials have usually enjoyed some degree of
autonomy; not under Trump. Even historically non-partisan national
security or intelligence leadership positions have been filled by people
who are ideologically aligned with the White House, rather than endowed
with the experience or expertise needed to push back or account for the
concerns raised by career non-political employees.
Thus, an initial incorrect assumption or statement by Trump cascades into day-to-day policy implementation.
The same Post report featured the following stunning
passage from an anonymous US official: “Donald Trump may not have been
expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were – they
just couldn’t get him to do anything about it. The system was blinking
red.” That latter passage is an obvious reference to that aforementioned
central finding of the 9/11 Commission Report.
Given that Trump concluded early on that the
coronavirus simply could not present a threat to the United States,
perhaps there is nothing that the intelligence community, medical
experts employing epidemiological models, or public health officials
could have told the White House that would have made any difference.
Former national security adviser Henry Kissinger is reputed
to have said after an intelligence community warning went unrecognized,
“You warned me, but you didn’t convince me.” Yet, a presidential brain
trust wholly closed off to contrarian, though accurate, viewpoints is
incapable of being convinced.
The White House detachment and nonchalance during the
early stages of the coronavirus outbreak will be among the most costly
decisions of any modern presidency. These officials were presented with a
clear progression of warnings and crucial decision points far enough in
advance that the country could have been far better prepared. But the
way that they squandered the gifts of foresight and time should never be
forgotten, nor should the reason they were squandered: Trump was
initially wrong, so his inner circle promoted that wrongness
rhetorically and with inadequate policies for far too long, and even
today. Americans will now pay the price for decades.
Donald Trump is the captain of the Titanic. Except he’s
still arguing that this is the greatest voyage ever, complaining that
people want too many lifeboats, and telling everyone to get back to that
fantastic dinner. So … strike up the band and take a seat. More are
available all the time.
On Thursday evening, Trump called in for a chat with Fox News’ Sean
Hannity, and in that conversation he demonstrated that just because the
nation is in the midst of a catastrophic epidemic where normal life has
been destroyed, millions have already lost their job, and thousands are
going to die—it can always be worse.
Because there was absolutely
nothing in the conversation with Hannity that demonstrated that Trump
had the slightest sense of what was really happening in the world around
him, or that he was going to lift a finger to help.
It’s never a good sign when Trump begins a conversation with his best
pal/propagandist by informing the world that he told the chairman of
the Chinese Communist Party to chill for a couple of hours while he got
out his on-air whining.
But that’s exactly how Trump’s conversation
began, with Trump telling Hannity that he put a scheduled call to
President Xi Jinping on hold.
"Because of you, I made it at 10:30," Trump said, explaining how he
had put off the call. "That just shows you the power ... that just shows
when you have the number one rated show in television.” Because there
is never anything in the world that Trump thinks about more than
television ratings. Really. Even now. The purpose of that call with Xi
was supposed to be discussing the pandemic, how China brought the virus
under control, and whether they might be able to provide material
assistance now that the United States has taken over the #1 spot as the
world’s most-infected nation. All of that went on hold.
Trump then went straight to his major theme of the
evening—complaining about people wanting him to display
leadership. Which is exactly what Trump did for the next hour. Rather
than expressing his concerns about the coronavirus epidemic, rather than
offering his support to those suffering, or condolences for those
already mourning, Trump used his appearance to complain that
people, governors in this case, were asking for things. In
particular, Trump was upset that governors wanted personal protective
equipment for healthcare workers, and ventilators for patients. Trump
seemed to treat these requests like they were not only coming direct
from his own pocket, but as if the governors were trying to trick him by
… requesting lifesaving equipment as citizens died around them.
“I have a feeling that a lot of numbers that are being sent in some
areas are just bigger than they need to be,” said Trump. Even as the
numbers in New York shot up again, with over 100 deaths in a day,
three-hour waits for an ambulance, and every available space filled with
suffering, Trump dismissed the idea that the whole state of New York
might need large numbers of ventilators.
“I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,” said Trump.
“You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two
ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order
30,000 ventilators?’” Many hospitals have a ventilator system for every
ICU room. There are 214 hospitals in New York State.
Even 40,000 would
be less than 200 each at a time when those hospitals are being swarmed
by thousands of patients.
But Trump has a “feeling” about it, which is of course much more important than numbers or facts or dead people. In fact, Trump returned to this point and decided he had been too generous in his earlier assessment. “You
go to hospitals who have don’t even have one in a hospital,” said
Trump, “and all of a sudden everybody is asking for vast numbers.”
Greedy bastards. Wanting all that … lifesaving equipment.
But even then Trump wasn’t done complaining about the request. “When
you talk about ventilators,” said Trump, “it is a highly intricate
piece of equipment. It’s heavily computerized, and good ones are very,
very expensive. And they say … Gov. Cuomo and others ... they say we
want 30,000 of them. 30,000. Think of this.”
Yes, think of it. A new
medical ventilator costs around $15,000. If Trump gave everyone what
they wanted, it could cost $450 million. It’s not like it’s a real
national emergency, when Donald Trump took funding from veteran’s
housing, schools, and even hospitals to channel billions into his wall.
What Trump took from unallocated Department of Defense funds just
when he declared a national emergency in 2018 would be enough to buy
over 1.2 million ventilators … but then no one elected Trump to save
lives. And he’s not.
But Trump wasn’t satisfied in just complaining about governors
wanting things. Not when he could also complain about governors. Trump
took multiple shots at Washington governor Jay Inslee, who was the first
governor in the nation to face a coronavirus hot spot. Despite earning
widespread praise for his handling of the situation, including from Mike
Pence, Trump described Inslee as “a snake.”
But at least he remembered Inslee’s name. Trump’s other major target
was also a Democratic governor in a state hit hard by COVID-19. “We’ve
had a big problem with the young ... a woman governor … you, you know
who I’m talking about. From Michigan,” Trump said to Hannity. “We don’t
like complaints,” said Trump, apparently invoking a royal pronoun.
That’s Michigan Gov. Gretcher Whitmer. And her complaint is that
Trump is hoarding materials while letting her people die. It’s a pretty
valid complaint.
Now, millennia later, there are prominent voices among
us who propose sacrificing the old and weak among us at the altar of
another false god – the global economy.
Suddenly, the ghosts of Thomas Malthus and Jeremy Bentham have become priests for the 21st-century Moloch, and have haunted American public conversation about coronavirus.
Republican officials, conservative economists, unqualified pundits,
and even the 73-year-old president of the United States have suggested
that the short-term economic pain we have just begun inflicting on
ourselves to slow the spread of coronavirus might cost too much, just to
save the lives of a few million of our most vulnerable neighbors.
“It’s a little bit like, when you discover sex can be
dangerous, you don’t come out and say: there should be no more sex,”
Mulligan said. “You should give people guidance on how to have sex less
dangerously.”
And on Tuesday Trump announced that he wanted all US business back to normal levels of function by Easter, 12 April. “This cure is worse than the problem,” Trump said.
This is beyond immoral. It’s profoundly stupid. But
this mode of thought is all too common among those who can’t see beyond
their economic textbooks or their stock portfolios. And it has troubling
intellectual roots.
In the late 18th century, Malthus warned that the poor
would breed at a rate that would outpace the resources necessary to
sustain a growing population, resulting in famine and misery. His
predictions failed but were still deployed for decades to limit public
amelioration of poverty.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Bentham
promoted the idea that public moral decisions should be made to foster
the greatest good for the greatest number, forging the calculus that has
pushed policymakers and economists to invoke simplified “cost-benefit
analyses” to decide if a measure is worthy of consideration.
Overall, this approach is a stark example of a
troubling ideology that grips too many of those with power and influence
in the world. Economism
is a belief system that leads people to believe that everything can be
simplified to models and curves, and that it’s possible to count and
maximize utility in every circumstance.
What economism misses includes complexity, historical contingency and the profound, uncountable power of human emotion.
To set up a false choice between driving the economy
into the ground while saving millions of lives or reviving the economy
while sacrificing millions of lives ignores a core fact: the global
economic depression unleashed by the deaths of millions in the United
States, millions in Europe, millions in Asia, millions in India,
millions in Mexico and millions in Brazil would be beyond our experience
or imagination.
No one would trade with anyone for years. Trade would
grind to a halt because of mourning, fear of infection, society-wide
trauma and social unrest. Let’s note that despite the late and
insufficient responses by North American and European leaders, those
leading Mexico and Brazil have yet to take the threat seriously at all. They keep denying the gravity of our situation.
India only this week took measures
that it should have taken in January prohibiting most people from
leaving home and grounding flights for a month. But millions of Indians
have no door to close, no place to store food, and no way to distance
themselves from those infected. Corpses will soon pile up, waiting for
cremation or burial, reinfecting communities weakened by this disease.
No one is ready for the social, spiritual and economic devastation that
is sure to come by June.
Anywhere in the world, positing this problem as a
tradeoff between the economic interests of the young and the lifespan of
the old is a terrible error. As the US Centers for Disease Control explains,
those vulnerable to serious or fatal cases of the infection include not
just the elderly, but anyone who is obese, diabetic, has high blood
pressure, is HIV-positive, has undergone cancer treatment, suffers from
asthma or smokes. Those factors are more common among poorer Americans
as well as older Americans. And poor Americans occupy all age ranges.
Soon enough, as hospitals around the world overflow
with coronavirus patients, exhausting doctors, nurses, orderlies,
custodians, medical supplies, ventilators and hospital cash accounts, doctors will have to make moral choices about who lives or dies.
We should not supersede their judgment based on a false choice.
Economic depression will come, regardless of how many we let die. The
question is how long and devastating it will be.
So this is not a matter of young v old, or even rich v
poor (although that would be more accurate and a more classic story of
political conflict in America). Even those with none of the most dangerous conditions, who are as young as 12, could succumb to this powerful virus. It’s all of us v all of us. Or, if we choose, all of us for all of us.
he
president is crazy*. We see that every day. But he is the president. He
won the election – technically. So, we just have to live with it –
having a president who is clinically insane*.
There is a diagnosis – narcissistic personality
disorder*. It’s a real thing. And he has it. “I alone can fix it,” he
told us at the Republican National Convention.
Nothing he has said or
done since would lead you to any other conclusion. He is a sociopath*,
our president.
It was never okay. Having a nutcase* in the White
House. But somehow he had survived three-plus years without facing a
huge crisis – if you don’t count his impeachment as a huge crisis, which
it sort of wasn’t. It didn’t really matter that he started his
presidency by crazily insisting that his inaugural crowd was bigger than
Obama’s. (What do suppose that was about?)
Not even one American would die because less than 24
hours into his presidency Americans were introduced to something called
“alternative facts.” So, as constantly weird and offensive as it has
been for Americans to have a bonkers* president, he skated through.
Until Covid-19.
The president’s mental illness* allows him to be both
intellectual sloth and supremely confident jerk, ever convinced that he
(and he alone) can do everyone else’s job better than they. Generals,
climate scientists, public health experts. And he’s always right.
Because he’s a psychopath*. And this Donald Trump brand of psychopath*
is never wrong. Even when being wrong will cause the additional deaths
of perhaps hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Let’s start with his very first public assessment of
the most-deadly worldwide pandemic in a century. Asked at Davos by a
CNBC reporter, “Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?”
Jan. 22 – “No. Not at all. And we have it totally under control.”
Jan. 24 – “It will all work out well.”
Jan. 30 – “We have it very well under control. We
have very little problem in this country at the moment – five. And those
people are all recuperating successfully.”
Feb. 10 – “Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”
Feb. 19 – “I think the numbers are getting progressively better as we go.”
Feb. 20 – “…within a couple of days, is going to be down to close to zero.”
Feb. 22 – “We have it very much under control in this country.”
Feb. 25 – “…the Democrats are politicizing the
coronavirus… They tried the impeachment hoax … and this is their new
hoax.” (to Sean Hannity)
Feb. 26 – “We’re going down, not up.”
Feb. 27 – “It’s going to disappear. One day like a miracle – it will disappear.”
Feb. 29 – “Everything is really under control.” (The vaccine will be available) “very rapidly.”
March 2 – “It’s very mild.”
March 4 – “…we’re talking about very small numbers in the United States.”
March 6 – (visiting the CDC) “I like this stuff. I
really get it. People are surprised I understand it. Every one of these
doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a
natural ability.’ Maybe I should have done that instead of running for
president.” Maybe.
March 6: (same availability) “Anybody who wants a test can get a test. That’s the bottom line.”
March 7: “I’m not concerned at all. No, we’ve done a great job with it.”
March 10 – “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
March 16 – (asked to rate his own performance) “I’d rate it a ten.”
March 17 – “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”
One striking aspect of Trump’s mental illness* is that
he expends no energy trying to disguise it. Most successful sociopaths*
put a lot of effort into hiding their illness. Not Donald Trump. It’s
all right there for all of us to see, all the time.
Some very smart people have suggested that the
coronavirus briefings should come from the CDC or the Department of
Health and Human services – with public health experts, doctors, and
other public officials giving scientifically accurate information to the
press and the American people. Well, that just shows you how stupid
very smart people can be.
Trump has to do the briefings. Because he won’t be
able to hold a rally for months.
He’s an egomaniac*. A charlatan who
needs an audience to get his juices going.
And so, we have this spectacle now – three, four, five
times a week. What will Trump do today? Take credit for some positive
development? Of course. Blow up at a “nasty” reporter? Good chance. Give
out a piece of dangerously irresponsible information? You bet.
What will Dr. Tony Fauci do when this idiot* suggests
that it would be a beautiful thing for Americans to pack the pews on
Easter Sunday? Oh, he just did that? Even though that would be just
cuckoo*?
But what will Dr. Fauci do the next time? Or the next?
Flinch? Roll his eyes? Tactfully correct the president? I beg you, Mr.
President. Keep Dr. Fauci! Yes, it’s just a matter of time before you
put him in an untenable position and his measured, diplomatic response
will set you off because you are a lunatic*. And you will want to fire
him because you will be in an uncontrollable rage. That’s going to
happen, because it always happens, and because you are completely
unhinged*.
But please, sir, don’t. Not because he is an
indispensable asset during this once-in-a-century worldwide pandemic.
No. Keep Tony Fauci because he will guarantee you an enormous audience.
Millions more will flock to their screens for the drama. It’s Salieri
versus Mozart. The bitter, twisted hack against the true genius
dedicated to his God-given gift. And remember which one died early and
was dumped into a pauper’s grave!
It would be fun to watch, if it weren’t so sad.
Don’t go to church, everyone. Stay home, everyone.
_____
*I am not a psychiatrist. Nor have I personally examined the President.
Cuba is caricatured by the Right as a
totalitarian hellhole. But its response to the coronavirus pandemic —
from sending doctors to other countries to pioneering anti-viral
treatments to converting factories into mask-making machines — is
putting other countries, even rich countries, to shame.
ast week, the MS Braemar,
a transatlantic cruise ship carrying 682 passengers from the United
Kingdom, found itself momentarily stranded. Five of the cruise’s
passengers had tested positive for the coronavirus. Several dozen more
passengers and crew members were in isolation after exhibiting flu-like
symptoms.
The ship had been rebuffed from several ports of entry
throughout the Caribbean.
According to sources in the British government
who spoke to CNN, the UK then reached out to both the United States and Cuba “to find a suitable port for the Braemar.”
Which country took them in? If you’ve paid attention
to the Trump administration’s xenophobic rhetoric about “the Chinese
virus” and its obsession with keeping foreign nationals out of the
country, and you know anything about Cuba’s tradition of sending doctors
to help with humanitarian crises all around the world, you should be
able to guess the answer.
The Braemardocked
in the Cuban port of Mariel last Wednesday. Passengers who were healthy
enough to travel to their home countries were transported to the
airport in Havana. Those who were too sick to fly
were offered treatment at Cuban hospitals — even though there had only
been ten confirmed cases in the whole country, and allowing patients
from the cruise ship to stay threatened to increase the number.
Cuba Mobilizes Against the Virus
Despite being a poor country that often experiences
shortages — a product of both the economy’s structural flaws and the
effects of sixty years of economic embargo by its largest natural
trading partner — Cuba was better positioned than most to deal with the
coronavirus pandemic.
The country combines a completely socialized medical
system that guarantees health care to all with impressive biotech
innovations. A Cuban antiviral drug (Interferon Alfa-2B) has been used to combat the coronavirus both inside the country and in China. Cuba also boasts
8.2 doctors per capita — well over three times the rate in the United
States (2.6) or South Korea (2.4), almost five times as many as China
(1.8), and nearly twice as many as Italy (4.1).
On top of its impressive medical system, Cuba has a
far better track record of protecting its citizens from emergencies than
other poor nations — and even some rich ones. Their “comprehensive,
all-hands-on-deck” hurricane-preparedness system,
for example, is a marvel, and the numbers speak for themselves. In
2016, Hurricane Matthew killed dozens of Americans and hundreds of
Haitians. Not a single Cuban died. Fleeing residents were even able to
bring their household pets with them — veterinarians were stationed at
the evacuation centers.
The coronavirus will be a harder challenge than a
hurricane, but Cuba has been applying the same “all-hands-on-deck”
spirit to prepare. Tourism has been shut down (a particularly painful
sacrifice, given the industry’s importance to Cuba’s beleaguered
economy). And the nationalized health care industry has not only made
sure that thousands of civilian hospitals are at the ready for
coronavirus patients, but that several military hospitals are open for
civilian use as well.
Masks: A Tale of Two Countries
In the United States, the surgeon general and other
authorities tried to conserve face masks for medical professionals by
telling the public that the masks “wouldn’t help.” The problem, as Dr
Zeynep Tufekci argued in a recent New York Times
op-ed, is that the idea that doctors and nurses needed the masks
undermined the claim that they would be ineffective. Authorities
correctly pointed out that masks would be useless (or even do more harm
than good) if not used correctly, but as Tufekci notes, this messaging
never really made sense. Why not launch an aggressive educational
campaign to promote the dos and don’ts of proper mask usage rather than
telling people they’d never be able to figure it out?
Many people also wash their hands wrong, but we don’t
respond to that by telling them not to bother. Instead, we provide
instructions; we post signs in bathrooms; we help people sing songs that
time their hand-washing. Telling people they can’t possibly figure out
how to wear a mask properly isn’t a winning message. Besides, when you
tell people that something works only if done right, they think they
will be the person who does it right, even if everyone else doesn’t.
The predictable result of all of this is that, after
weeks of “don’t buy masks, they won’t work for you” messaging, so many
have been purchased that you can’t find a mask for sale anywhere in the
United States outside of a few on Amazon for absurdly gouged prices.
In Cuba, on the other hand, nationalized factories
that normally churn out school uniforms and other non-medical items have
been repurposed to dramatically increase the supply of masks.
Cuban Doctors Abroad
The same humanitarian and internationalist spirit that led Cuba to allow the Braemar to dock has also led the tiny country to send doctors to assist Haiti after that nation’s devastating 2010 earthquake, fight Ebola in West Africa in 2014, and, most recently, help Italy’s overwhelmed health system amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Cuba offered to send similar assistance to the United States after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, but was predictably rebuffed by the Bush administration.)
Even outside of temporary emergencies, Cuba has long
dispatched doctors to work in poor countries with shortages of medical
care. In Brazil, Cuban doctors were warmly welcomed for years by the
ruling Workers’ Party. That began to change with the ascendance of
far-right demagogue Jair Bolsonaro. When he assumed office, Bolsonaro expelled most of the Cuban doctors from the country, insisting that they were in Brazil not to heal the sick but “to create guerrilla cells and indoctrinate people.”
As recently as two weeks ago, Bolsonaro was calling the idea that the coronavirus posed a serious threat to public health a “fantasy.” Now that reality has set in, he’s begging the Cuban doctors to come back.
Embracing Complexity About Cuba
Last month, Bernie Sanders was red-baited and
slandered by both Republicans and establishment Democrats for
acknowledging the real accomplishments of the Cuban Revolution. It
didn’t seem to matter to these critics that Sanders started and ended
his comments by calling the Cuban government “authoritarian” and
condemning it for keeping political prisoners. Instead, they seemed to
judge his comments by what I called the “Narnia Standard.”
Rather than frankly discussing both the positive and negative aspects
of Cuban society, the island state is treated as if it lacks any
redeeming features — like Narnia before Aslan, where it was “always
winter and never Christmas.”
Democratic socialists value free speech, press
freedom, multiparty elections, and workplace democracy. We can and
should criticize Cuba’s model of social organization for its deficits.
But Cuba’s admirably humane and solidaristic approach to the coronavirus
should humble those who insist on talking about the island nation as if
it were some unending nightmare.
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ncient 
he
president is crazy*. We see that every day. But he is the president. He
won the election – technically. So, we just have to live with it –
having a president who is clinically insane*.
