Tag: #coronavirus

  • Coronavirus and Belief over Facts

    The coronavirus is in New York, and I am not really surprised. Whatever the issue might be, it will eventually show up here. I’m not too worried. A little worried, yes, but more like keeping my guard up, worried.

    I haven’t started hoarding masks, or latex gloves, or toilet paper. We have the normal amount of food that we would have for a Tuesday.

    We have gone to sporting events, parks, museums, and plan on continuing to do that.

    I’m not very confident in the City, State and Federal government working together on this, but if I had to pick a big city to be in when a pandemic hits, I will still go with New York. This town seems to handle disasters rather well.

    The one thing that I started to notice on social media are the anti-vaxxers making statements about how they will not be contracting coronavirus because their kids never received any vaccinations. At least that is what an old high school friend just posted. (Heard immunity, I know, they should look it up…) Somehow, not getting a vaccination is their plan to survive this.

    Selective science people fascinate me. I had a girlfriend once who swore up and down that evolution was fake and the world was only 5,000 years old because the bible said so… but at the same time, she was in college to become a nurse, and that meant medical science was completely real and to be trusted. I would point out that geology and biology and all the sciences used the same scientific method, and also used peer review to verify results. Didn’t matter, God had “told” her and nothing could dissuade her. (Yes, we did break up.)

    That is what makes me nervous about people and this virus; going off of what they believe to be true, and not what the facts are.

  • Coronavirus, Gig Economy, and Deaths of Despair

    To my surprise, when I woke up this morning and started to read the news, Charlie Warzel wrote a piece about how the coronavirus quarantines are affecting people along class lines disproportionally. (I hate to brag, but I pretty much said the same thing a little while ago.) Affluent people will not suffer the same way people who have to work will, and also the gig economy is now structured so that others have to support the ones who stay home.

    And then to make this a really happy Friday, the New York Times also had a story on how working-class Americans, those who do not have a four-year college degree, are dying in higher numbers to “deaths of despair” which is defined by death due to alcohol, drugs or suicide. The data is striking and rather scary. There is a lot to unpack here, and I suggest that you read it.

    All of it is important, but what jumped out at me are two data points about how working-class Americas are less likely to be married and to go to church. The stereotype for as long as I can remember has been the opposite; working class America was the church going and family values people. If that notion is now turned on its head, does that mean that “values voters” are now college educated liberals?

    What all of this reminds me of is what Studs Terkel always said about the importance of solid, reliable, dignified work, and how that is the cornerstone of communities. That a worker needs to know that their job will be there tomorrow, that they will be paid a fair wage, and that they are respected for the work they accomplish.

    Right now, the data is showing that this doesn’t exist anymore for working class Americans, and they are getting pushed into gig economy roles, which is clearly becoming a second-class worker in America.

  • Who Can Afford That?

    I can admit that two weeks ago, I didn’t think the coronavirus would be something that we in the United States would have to worry about. The world had done a very good job at containing Ebola, and with the outbreak in China, a nation not known for caring about the rights of its citizens, it would be quarantined just like they had done with SARS.

    So, I was wrong.

    At least in the sense that we here in the US need to prepared for the possibility of an outbreak of the disease within our boarders. I don’t see that as a fearful reacting, but more a matter of being logical.

    The one thing that has jumped out at me from the NYC and NY state press conferences (I won’t even get into the ridiculousness of Trump’s press conference) is that both the mayor and governor were telling people that if an outbreak happens, “just stay home, and don’t go to school.”

    Clearly, we should all do that.

    And…

    Clearly, half of us out that can’t afford to do that.

    Half of the people out there is this city and state live paycheck to paycheck, and if they miss a day of work they fall behind. Are landlords going to let people pay their rent late? Are banks going to let mortgage and credit card payments be late? How about internet and cable companies? (I know ConEd doesn’t care, coz they don’t shut off power to anyone.) Are all those bills going to wait until the threat is over?

    There is a domino effect here when large groups of people don’t go to work and don’t get paid. I see the how the world economy is grinding to a halt just by the way the stock markets are beginning to fall off a cliff.

    Again, who is thinking about the people that are just hanging on to the edges of this economy?