5-year-old girl dies of COVID-19 in Michigan while armed protesters deem quarantine excessive

People take part in a protest for "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine" at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on April 15, 2020.

Lauren Floyd

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Tuesday April 21, 2020 · 8:30 AM MDT

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Her name was Skylar Herbert, a 5-year-old Black girl from Michigan and the daughter of first responders. She developed a rare type of meningitis and brain swelling after testing positive for COVID-19 and died Sunday in the state’s first confirmed case of a child dying of the virus, according to The Detroit News.

In her final days, as she fought for her life, it was not her name or face that adorned the posters protesters held on the steps of the state capitol in Lansing Wednesday.

No, armed with rifles, they instead held “LivE Free or DIE” and “END THE LOCKDOWN” signs, because this group of gun rights and far-right agitators had rallied in support of only themselves.

They were trying to pressure Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer into overturning her stay-at-home order in the state because even though more than 2,465 people have died of the coronavirus in Michigan, apparently money still has to be made and guns still have to be purchased. “OUR Governor IS DESTROYING OUR HEALTH BY KILLING OUR LIVELIHOODS,” GOP state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey said in a Facebook post.

 Members of Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine, a group that has amassed more than 365,990 members on Facebook, complained about being “really tired of being grounded.” And as sure as far-right selfishness persists, the Michigan agitators aren’t the only ones taking on restoring the economy instead of saving human lives.

Facebook groups protesting quarantine orders have targeted members in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all seemingly under the leadership of Minnesota Gun Rights political director Ben Dorr, according to The Washington Post.

An anti-quarantine protest in Pennsylvania attracted about 2,000 people Monday, USA Today reported. "Unfortunately, some people have lost their lives to the virus," state GOP Rep. Aaron Bernstine said at the protest. "My heart goes out to every one of those people. But my heart also goes out to the 1.5 million people in Pennsylvania out of work." 

Having actually lost a child to the pandemic, LaVondria Herbert, a Detroit police officer for 25 years, came down on the side of saving lives in her interview with The Detroit News. She and Detroit firefighter Ebbie Herbert, both Skylar’s parents, watched their child die after multiple trips to area hospitals. 

Skylar’s initial symptoms didn't even point to the coronavirus, they told The Detroit News. She tested positive for strep at her pediatrician’s office. However, she had a persistent headache and mild fever that the antibiotics she was given for strep didn’t remedy, her mother told the newspaper.

When the child cried all night in pain, her parents took Skylar to the emergency room, The Detroit News reported. She tested positive for COVID-19 and was released a day later.

"We went back to emergency at the Beaumont Hospital’s Farmington campus because I noticed my husband was coughing and having shortness of breath," LaVondria told the newspaper. "Me and Skylar waited in the car, but out of nowhere, Skylar began complaining about her head hurting again and then she just threw up."

She was shivering with a temperature of about 100 degrees and started seizing just before her father returned from the emergency room, LaVondria told The Detroit News. "(I told her) Skylar, look at your daddy, Skylar, look at your daddy," Ebbie said. "She came out of the seizure and me and her mother ran back into the emergency room." 

The couple learned their daughter had meningitis when she was transferred to another campus, and she died after spending two weeks on a ventilator, according to The Detroit News.

“I want to say thank you to the governor for making people go home,” LaVondria told the newspaper.

 

TRUMP AND FASCISM: Lest you thought it was just your imagination...

alterego55

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Thursday April 06, 2017 · 2:22 PM MDT

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In case you missed this when it was first published, these characteristics of fascism are as true today as they were when Hitler first demonstrated them...

The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism.

I was watching yet another Trump “campaign” a few days ago. I’ve always believed that Trump’s campaign rallies are very reminiscent of 1930s Germany. It inspired me to research what really constitutes Fascism, which led me to a definition of Fascism compiled by Dr. Lawrence Britt many years ago. He analyzed Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto and a number of South American regimes.

From that analysis, he established the 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism, and guess what? They map directly to Trump’s policies, practices and political positions more than I ever imagined. The evidence is crystal clear and abundant.

The following list defines the 14 characteristics along with their definitions - and a few of Trump’s gems as examples. Some of the examples are repeated because Trump has managed to match one statement to more than one characteristic of Fascism. 

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos , slogans, symbols, songs and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays. 

Mottos and slogans: Make America Great Again, Build the Wall, Lock ‘er Up, Drain the Swamp. Songs: Lee Greenwood, God Bless the USA. Symbols and paraphernalia: Truckers’ hats, Purple Heart, “I always wanted one”. 

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in Fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

“Muslim ban”; “Muslim database”; “kiII their families”; “torture works”; “more than waterboarding”; “if I tell generals to do it [war crimes], they will do it”; women who’ve had abortions should be penalized. 

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause -  In Fascist regimes, the people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

Mexicans, Muslims, Chinese, African Americans; “get-em-outta-here”; Crooked Hillary, Lyin’ Ted, Little Marco; the media; calling the US Intel Community Nazis; Russians are OK though. 

4. Supremacy of the Military -  In a Fascist regime, even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized. 

Cutting funding for Meals on Wheels, CPB  and after school programs, while increasing the Homeland Security and Defense budgets.  "We need to make our military so big, so powerful, we never have to use it” - even though Trump clearly knows we already have the most powerful and formidable military in the world by a wide margin, and that conventional military power isn’t the key to asymmetric warfare. 

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of Fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under Fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

“Grab ‘em by the p---y”,“You have to treat women like s--t”; “A woman who is very flat chested is very hard to be a 10.”; “Perhaps I’d date my daughter.”; “Look at that face”; “Fat pig”; women who’ve had abortions should be penalized.  Support of Roger Ailes’ and Bill O’Reilly’s multiple cases of sexual harassment. 

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic Fascist media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

“News media is the enemy of the American People”; “lying media”; open up libel laws.
Roger AiIes; Sean Hannity; Bill O’Reilly; Rush Limbaugh; Steve Bannon; Alex Jones; Mark Levin. 

7. Obsession with National Security - In a Fascist state, fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bring crime. They’re rapists”; “Muslim Ban”; “Muslim Database”, 

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in Fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

“Christianity, it's under siege”; “An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views.”; Selecting Christian Dominionist Pence as his running mate. 

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a Fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

“I give to everybody. when they call, I give. And do you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them, they are there for me.”  Strategic bankruptcy protection; frivolous lawsuits; shortchanging contractors and vendors; usage of eminent domain to acquire other people’s property; cabinet rife with a record number of corporate and Wall Street elite.  Nominating people to head agencies who are hostile to those agencies’ very purpose. Why? To protect corporate interests and profits. 

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a Fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed. 

“Taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world”; “Having a low minimum wage isn’t a bad thing”. 

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked. 

“Climate Change is a Chinese hoax”; “I'm smart, You’re stupid”; “I love the poorly educated” which is fine, but Trump also despises the “intellectual elite”.
Andy Warhol: “I still hate the Trumps”; Artspace Magazine: “He's hardly the only artist to hate Trump”. 

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under Fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in Fascist nations. 

(“Law and Order President”; “The Central Park 5”; “bring back Stop and Frisk”; Women who have abortions should be punished; “Lock ‘er Up”) 

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in Fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders. 

Family members and a record number of Wall Street cronies in his Administration.
“I give to everybody. when they call, I give. And do you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them, they are there for me.”  Trump Foundation: Paid a fine for illegal campaign contributions, admitted to illegal self-dealing, admitted to accepting illegal donations, under a cease and desist order. 

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in Fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections. 

“The election is rigged”; “We should just cancel the election and declare me the winner”; At least a dozen confirmed contacts with Russian Oligarchs, Diplomats and/or Intelligence agents, despite Trump and associates publicly refuting it 20 times with absolutes such as ‘zero involvement’.

YOU HAVE JUST READ DONALD TRUMP'S PLAYBOOK.  IT WAS ALSO HITLER'S...

Republicans rail against 'Blue State Bailouts' while Red America bleeds the country dry

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's Kentucky is bleeding America dry.

kos

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Thursday April 23, 2020 · 12:40 PM MDT

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Already, impeached president Donald Trump and his parry of idiots is creating conditions for a breakup of the United States of America. They think their efforts to suppress democracy while punishing blue states for caring for their residents will be allowed to continue indefinitely. But that’s not going to happen. And with blue state governors joining in interstate compacts in the west and northeast, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom calling California a “nation-state” (it is the fifth largest economy in the world!), the seeds for a devastating crackup have already been sown.

Now, Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley are pouring gasoline on those first sparks.

Imagine that: McConnell is calling additional federal funding for states suffering under the pandemic lockdown and Trump’s breathtakingly inept handling of the crisis a “Blue State Bailout.”

It’s a theme that supposed “frontier Americans” like to tout, along with their self-reliance and pull-up-their-bootstraps attitudes. Just look at those city folks—especially the Black ones—all relying on government largess. Who can trust those tax-and-spend Democrats anyway? So you get bullshit comments like this:

There is no rainy day fund that would prepare any state for a catastrophe of this magnitude. Is Haley saying that she’s happy to skip receipt of any federal money? Because of course that’s not happening.

But it’s worse than that: South Carolina would not exist in its current form without the largess of the federal budget. According to analysis by the Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York, South Carolina got backed $1.73 billion in 2017, and $1.61 billion in 2018. That’s quite the return. And who is carrying South Carolina’s dead weight?

	Net $ sent to Feds ////	Return on $1 sent to feds

New York	$22 billion	$0.90
New Jersey	$11.5B	$0.91
Massachusetts	$9.1B	$0.90
Connecticut	$8.1B	$0.84
Colorado	$1.6B	$0.97
Minnesota	$725 million	$0.99

How much extra did South Carolina pull in? $23 billion. So it’s not just those blue states— you can pretty much say that New York bailed out the Palmetto State.

And keep in mind, these numbers are exaggerated by the Trump trillion-dollar deficit, in which tax cuts for the rich meant that billionaire New Yorkers and Californians pay less in taxes. (If you want to see for yourself, here’s the data for 2017, pre-tax cuts.)

Kentucky is extra special, though. If you wonder why McConnell survives reelection every year despite deep personal unpopularity, it’s because Kentucky is the single biggest bailed out state in the entire country.

In 2017, it received a whopping $40.8 billion more than it paid in federal taxes, or a rate of return of $2.35 for every dollar spent. In 2018, it was an even bigger $45 billion, or $2.41 for every dollar sent to Washington.

No state is bailed out the way Kentucky is. It is a black hole of federal resources—a deficit-creation machine.

(The only other states that come close in federal largess are Virginia and Maryland, because of federal government infrastructure like the Pentagon, the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.)

Now McConnell, of all people, is going to walk around talking about “bailing out” blue states, when it is those blue states that make Kentucky possible?

Haley is going to complain about bailing out blue states while her state sucks in tens of billions of dollars generated by blue states?

It is clear that conservatives only see blue America as a foil for their bigotries and a source of revenue for states run so poorly that they can’t compete economically with the Californias, Massachusetts, New Jerseys, and New Yorks of America. They lag in education. They lack in health and fitness and diet. They lag in clean air and water.

And through it all blue states have gamely carried that burden, because it’s what liberals do—we help people. But is there gratitude, respect, empathy for the extra weight blue Americans have to shoulder? Of course not. There’s nothing but contempt and the use of undemocratic institutions (like the Senate and the Electoral College) and techniques (like voter suppression) to maintain their lock on power.

That way, McConnell can continue wailing about the federal deficit and those boogeyman blue states, while his state and those of his pals continue to suck blue America dry.

Remember, the seeds are planted. Either Republicans start acting like this is a United States of America, or the seeds of a national breakup will continue to germinate. Because this status quo? It can’t and won’t continue.

Two tales of Trump teaming up with cronies to steal money from coronavirus effort

1. Trump's My Pillow buddy gets 75K to make masks he can't produce

The MyPillow guy, Mike Lindell, speaking at the March 30 coronavirus press conference for no apparent reason.  Would you buy pillows from this guy, much less trust him to deliver masks in a pandemic?

Walter Einenkel

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Wednesday April 22, 2020 · 11:20 AM MDT

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Remember how on March 30 Donald Trump held his daily coronavirus press conference in the White House Rose Garden and MyPillow founder Michael Lindell spoke? It was strange and disturbing and unhelpful. Three days later, the number of Americans dying every day from the novel coronavirus went from around 500 per day to over 1,000 per day. About two weeks later, well over 2,000 Americans are dying every day from COVID-19. Why the hell was the MyPillow guy praying on television during a goddamn coronavirus press conference?

The day after the press conference/infomercial for MyPillow, Lindell announced that his company would begin making medical masks. Unfortunately, Mr. Pillow could only produce cloth masks, and so he needed to contract out, and his promises of 50,000 masks by the end of the week came to a halt. But never you fear, Politico is reporting that the Department of Veterans Affairs is ponying up $75,000 to help Lindell along. And the delay? Well, “the order has not been filled yet because the company has yet to find a subcontractor to actually make the masks, since the VA wants KN95 and disposable masks and MyPillow only makes cloth masks.” 

So, let’s be clear: instead of the government paying a company that can and does produce the required masks, they are going to pay a guy who cannot produce the masks and will now act as a go-between to contract a company that will produce the masks. No matter how you cut that, this is inefficient, wasteful, and so silly it’s hard to not shake with anger while typing.

Lindell says that he won’t make “a dime” on this coronavirus mask deal. However, considering that it was less than five years ago that Lindell and his company was settling with ten California district attorneys for being fraudulent in his advertising, I find it hard to believe much of anything Lindell asserts.

Lindell has paid to play with Trump, and one thing we know about Trump is that he is transparently corrupt. According to 1100 Pennsylvania, Lindell has contributed around $628,000 since 2015 to various Republicans. Politico reports that the Republican Party plans to use the freshly negotiated coronavirus relief bill as a political attack on the Democratic Party—saying that Democratic officials delayed the process and it’s somehow their fault that unemployment is skyrocketing.

2. Trump-friendly company under investigation gets $8 million no-bid contract to build 800 feet of wall in Arizona

Tommy Fisher has campaigned to Trump directly through Fox News.  Lock your doors if these two hoodlums come calling.

Walter Einenkel

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Wednesday April 22, 2020 · 10:16 AM MDT

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On April 15, 2020, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) published the contracts and modified contracts they have with third party companies. At the very bottom of the long list was a modification to a contract the DoD had with Fisher Sand & Gravel Company, Dickinson, North Dakota. The contract was for border wall work in Yuma, Arizona, “for approximately 800 linear feet of 30-foot bollard barrier, roads, drainage improvements, lighting, closed-circuit TV, Type A fiber optic cable and Type B fiber optic cable.” The work is scheduled to be done by the end of 2020. That 800 feet of border wall fence will only cost $7,633,085.

If the name Fisher Sand & Gravel Company of North Dakota rings a bell, that’s because this is the same company that Trump reportedly kept pushing on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back in 2019.

This is the same company with bids, officials wrote the president, that “did not meet the operational requirements of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its prototype project came in late and over budget.”

This is the same company that ended up miraculously getting awarded a $400 million contract to build some of the border wall across an Arizona Wildlife Refuge. 

This is the same company with the $400 million contract that prompted an investigation by the Defense Department’s inspector general—which is still ongoing.

Democratic Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi told reporters that "last time I checked, the inspector general has not yet determined if the December 2019 Fisher contract was properly awarded and the country is still facing a pandemic and largely under lockdown. The Army Corps should pause construction and contracting decisions until the investigation is complete and it is safe to resume non-essential construction projects. Army Corps resources should be put to better use responding to the coronavirus pandemic we are still facing."

To add to this stew, Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, a big buddy of Fisher, whose campaign received a reported $10,000 dollars from Fisher, reportedly held up confirmation of a White House budget official last summer. This was a protest against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers perceived snubbing of Fisher Industries.

The Daily Beast reports that since Feb. 25, when the CDC warned that the coronavirus was already here and we needed to begin figuring out ways to mitigate the virus and the death toll, the “Army’s engineering arm has awarded at least $1.3 billion in wall contracts.”

So while governors and hospitals across the country beg for more medical equipment and testing that continues to lag far behind, the U.S. government under Trump continues draining the coffers and dumping all of that cash into the corruption swamp they’ve created.

Now he's making money off the resulting pandemic - and making sure his accomplices get a piece of the action.

Air Pollution a 'Key Contributor' to Covid-19 Deaths

Dense smog in Milan. The heavily polluted northern Italian city and the surrounding region have been hard hit by the coronavirus outbreak. (photo: Flavio Lo Scalzo/Reuters)

By Damian Carrington, Guardian UK

21 April 20
readersupportednews.org

Research shows almost 80% of deaths across four countries were in most polluted regions

igh levels of air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors” to deaths from Covid-19, according to research.

The analysis shows that of the coronavirus deaths across 66 administrative regions in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, 78% of them occurred in just five regions, and these were the most polluted.

The research examined levels of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant produced mostly by diesel vehicles, and weather conditions that can prevent dirty air from dispersing away from a city. Many studies have linked NO₂ exposure to health damage, and particularly lung disease, which could make people more likely to die if they contract Covid-19.

“The results indicate that long-term exposure to this pollutant may be one of the most important contributors to fatality caused by the Covid-19 virus in these regions and maybe across the whole world,” said Yaron Ogen, at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany, who conducted the research. “Poisoning our environment means poisoning our own body, and when it experiences chronic respiratory stress its ability to defend itself from infections is limited.”

The analysis is only able to show a strong correlation, not a causal link. “It is now necessary to examine whether the presence of an initial inflammatory condition is related to the response of the immune system to the coronavirus,” Ogen said.

A separate study published on 7 April looked at fine particle pollution in the US and found that even small increases in levels in the years before the pandemic were associated with far higher Covid-19 death rates. Another recent paper noted that the high death rates seen in the north of Italy correlated with the highest levels of air pollution.

The new research, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, compared NO₂ levels in January and February in 66 administrative regions with Covid-19 deaths recorded up to 19 March. Ogen also assessed the atmospheric conditions to see where pollution was being trapped over the regions.

He found that 78% of the 4,443 deaths were in four regions in northern Italy and one around Madrid in Spain. These five regions had the worst combination of NO₂ levels and airflow conditions that prevented dispersal of air pollution.

Ogen noted that the Po Valley in Italy and Madrid were surrounded by mountains, which helps trap pollution, as is Hubei province in China, where the pandemic began. “However, my research is only an initial indication that there might be a correlation between the level of air pollution, air movement and the severity of the course of the corona outbreaks,” he said.

Prof Jonathan Grigg, from Queen Mary University of London, said the study showed an association between Covid-19 deaths and NO₂ levels. “This association could reflect a causal link between exposure to air pollution and increased vulnerability to fatal Covid infection, but other factors cannot be ruled out at this stage. For example, the study does not adjust for differences in age distribution in different areas.”

Widespread lockdowns around the world have led to reduced vehicle traffic and air pollution. However, long-term exposure to dirty air before the pandemic may be more important than current levels of pollution.

In the UK, NO₂ has been at illegal levels in most urban areas for the last decade. A key policy to reduce NO₂ levels is the introduction of clean air zones, where charges are imposed to deter the most polluting vehicles from city centres. But the introduction of some CAZs has been postponed because of the coronavirus crisis.

Jenny Bates, an air pollution campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “This new study is worrying. We know NO₂ is a toxic gas that inflames the lining of the lungs and reduces immunity to lung infections, so it may not be surprising that people who have suffered in areas with high levels of NO₂ could be more susceptible to coronavirus.

“This is all the more reason to keep traffic and pollution levels down as much as possible now and get out of this terrible situation with a view to fewer but cleaner vehicles on the road.” 

What kind of horror story are we living through?

Just what kind of horror story is this?

solarsean

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Horror Story

No-one can deny that the world is living through a cataclysm the like of which has not been seen since the end of World War Two. No place on earth is truly safe and no person is entirely unaffected. We are all faced with social and economic upheaval and we all live in fear of physical danger, or worse. Covid 19 is now the story of our time but exactly what kind of story is it?

Stephen King, the worlds most famous horror novelist, once posited that all horror stories fall into three types, epitomized by three classic novels. The first is Dracula, in which a monster arrives unbidden into our midst. The second is Frankenstein, in which we create the monster, and the third is Jekyll and Hyde, in which we are the monster.

This hypothesis generally proves out. Jaws is a good example of the first type - the shark literally shows up from the depths to chow down swimmers at random. Most futuristic dystopia stories are of the second type - the entire Planet of The Apes franchise hinges around man’s hubris - and post-nuclear war stories by definition are the product of a man-made monster. These first two types develop into situational conflicts, but the third type leads us to inner conflict, to questioning ourselves.

Covid 19 starts as the first type of story, as all such outbreaks do. No-one could have known that that particular bat, trapped unknowingly by some unwitting farmer, and sold in that particular meat market would start a global pandemic. It was an innocent, though tragic, random event.

But soon thereafter it morphs into the second kind. The heirs to Tien An Men Square seem to have reverted to type and tried to cover up and then down-play what was happening and in so doing allowed the monster to multiply.

In the end, faced with no other choice, they did act methodically and efficiently to stave off what would, at a morbidity rate of 3.5%, have otherwise killed forty million or more of their citizens, and they did so in full view of the world. Even before we could all see our spies knew what was up. And they told our leaders who told us not to worry.

From here on the stories diverge. Some states and some countries acted immediately and in accordance with the best scientific and medical advice. They still suffered and have yet to drive a wooden stake through the monster’s heart, but their citizens can at least take solace in knowing that they are fighting a monster not of their own making.

Others are not so fortunate. Not only will their death tolls be possibly orders of magnitude worse, they will have to come to terms with the fact that they, through their elected representatives, chose procrastination in the face of an oncoming plague. They fed the monster with their fellow citizens.

People who read and analyze manuscripts and screenplays for a living invariably dissect the material into Act One, Act Two and Act Three: beginning, middle and end. Act One of the Covid war is now over. The blitzkrieg has happened, we have been invaded and subjugated. Act Two is now being written and acted out. We are resisting the enemy, most of us passively, some actively producing the arsenal to fight with, and a heroic few at real and immediate risk to their lives. We know what the script is for Act Three: test for symptoms, test for anti-bodies, create a vaccine.

All of this is ghastly enough, but here in the United States we must also endure the third kind of horror story. For if ever there was  a real life Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde it is our President. Donald Jekyll assures us all is well. Testing is plentiful. We will be sending ventilators to Italy.

Trump Hyde ignores the facts, deflects all blame and tells us that a death toll which will surely be higher than that of The Vietnam War is a success on his part. Not only must we live through unimaginable tragedy we must do so while being engulfed by an ocean of lies.

It is as if we are all somehow the brothers and sisters of Jamal Khashoggi, summoned every day to the palace to pay homage to the very person who murdered him. Trump paints a picture of greedy governors and thieving nurses and then, in his millionth Freudian slip, tweets to his followers that we must all forget this catastrophe the moment we return to work. And we would all be back at work now if he could only muzzle our public health officials or use his proxies to sell us on the fable that his malaria pills will save us.

He lies effortlessly, the fastest forked tongue in the west, a latter-day Pied Piper, luring the gullible and the greedy alike.

And yet, as painful as it is to have this duplicitous thug at the helm of this disaster, the split personality nature of what is happening does not stop at the Oval Office. Our entire society has evolved into a grotesque Jekyll and Hyde type of monstrosity.

As Barack Obama has more than once pointed out, Trump is but a symptom of a larger problem. We live in a time of rapid social, economic, cultural and technological change and not all of it benefits all of us equally, if at all, but it is for the most part inevitable and irreversible. And it provides a deep reservoir of discontent that has now been well exploited by those who stand to profit from a deeply divided society. Legions of Wormtongues, be they Russian bots, fossil fuel lobbyists, or Fox News personalities busy themselves to keep us disunited.

All horror stories begin with some Dionysian force invading our Apollonian world and end when that force has been vanquished, be it a shark, a ghost, a war or a virus. And we will defeat Covid19. This horror story will end though there will be casualties, some the inevitable tragic victims of the sudden arrival of this enemy, others the all too avoidable ones attributable to individual carelessness and collective negligence.

Be it Dracula or Frankenstein, the virus is doomed. The outcome of The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde is far less certain.