This pandemic sucks.

[feuervogel]

I'm so deeply angry about the federal response, which has been "ignore it and it will go away" crossed with "bUt ThE eCoNoMy!" The state-level responses have been half-hearted, for the most part, with some lockdown/shelter-in-place orders eventually, which were all loosened because 10k people wanted to get their hair cut and they protested with automatic weapons outside state houses.

The Tr*mp administration eliminated the pandemic response team and stockpile that Obama established because it was "pointless" and "we can just get these things when we need them." Whoever came up with the "just in time" business management theory deserves all the punishment and scorn we can heap on him.

The feeling I had, back in March, was more like we were all in this together, and if we all did our part, we'd beat the pandemic, or at least keep the virus down to endemic levels. (That means that something is always there at low levels, and it could flare up to a pandemic.) But now, with people crowding onto beaches and into restaurants and bars and not wearing masks, while those of us who give a shit about other people are still staying home and only going out for essentials.

But Europe, New Zealand, and Japan are pretty much all back to normal, albeit the new normal of masking and keeping distance. Why? Because these places had a swift, strong response to the outbreak when it started. They instituted lockdowns - which led to great videos of Italian mayors berating people for being out in public. They did contact tracing. They paid people to stay the fuck home so they didn't have to worry about paying rent and expenses without being able to go to work.

And yet. Here in the US, we have 50k+ new cases per day; Florida keeps setting daily record high positive tests; Texas and Arizona hospitals are overwhelmed and people who are sick as shit and should be admitted AREN'T because there aren't any beds for them. Healthcare workers are committing suicide from the stress and trauma. They're getting covid themselves, and sometimes dying. 1% of the country has tested positive for covid. 3.3 million people. This doesn't count people with symptoms who don't get tested (lots) or false negatives (also lots), so reality could be 5 million or more. We don't know.

We are a plague country. All foreign borders are closed to us. I don't blame them - as a nation, our response has been abysmal, and there's a very high chance that we'd bring the virus in with us. Which, of course, means I can't move to Germany in September like I planned, so I have no job here and my lease is up in a week and a half, so I have to crash on people's couches with a carload of stuff. (A friend generously offered me her guest room for as long as I need it - even if it's until the pandemic is controlled.)

ICE wants to kick foreign students out if the universities go fully online, because of some bullshit rule that only X number of credits can be online per semester. They suspended the rule for the emergency - which isn't over, obviously. Many universities are preparing to go back with "hyflex" or semi-online class structures, and it's ridiculous. You put 50k students onto campus, most of them 18-24, tell them to keep six feet apart and all these restrictions, and they won't do it. Or not enough of them will do it to make a difference. And then fucking football games, when an additional 80k people descend on Athens and cram into a stadium. They won't be able to happen like things are normal, regardless of what the government wants us to think.

So, yeah, I'm pissed off. I've been doing my part by masking and staying home to minimize my exposure risk AND to minimize the risk of being an asymptomatic (or pre-symptomatic) spreader. But millions of my compatriots want to pretend things are normal or, worse, believe the entire pandemic is a hoax designed to make Tr*mp look bad, so they go out unmasked, don' curr about anyone else.

I'm also scared and worried: for myself, of course; I don't want to get covid. But also for my friends who are being forced to return to an unsafe environment for the sake of ... I don't even fucking know what the excuse is. The economy. Not making the Orange Menace look worse than he already does. Whatever the reason is, it's bullshit. I have friends who teach high school, who are faculty, who are grad students and TAs, who are undergrads, and I'm scared that they'll get covid and die.

And on top of all that, federal troops are violently suppressing peaceful protests against police brutality. (Where, I should note, most of the people wear masks, for a variety of reasons which include reducing covid risk. And the cops don't, but they do cover their badge numbers and other identifying info.)