Memoir, from just outside the box

#BoomerRemover

MARCH 2020

Seattle… The N95 medical masks are sold out. Costco is packed with half-panicked citizens buying toilet paper, canned vegetables and canned tuna. Two high schools are shut down for deep cleaning. The people in the most danger are over 70 with compromised immune systems. My brother and I are in that category. I canceled my monthly hospital appointment at the University of Washington Blood Draw Clinic. Too much coughing in that waiting room.

Earth to Trump: “You can’t gaslight a virus.”

On March 11, 1918, what are believed to be the first confirmed U.S. cases of a deadly global flu pandemic were reported among U.S. Army soldiers at Fort Riley, Kansas. Forty-six would die. One hundred years ago, the Spanish Flu outbreak claimed an estimated 20 million to 40 million lives worldwide.

Today, Washington Governor Jay Inslee shut down the Seattle and King County school systems for a minimum of two weeks. Private schools started shutting down last week. All college classes are now online. As of today, my brother Ron's employer, Philips Ultrasound, is 100% work-from-home until March 31. Many restaurants are closed until further notice. Events involving masses of people are postponed or canceled.

Thankfully, my sister-in-law Megan stocked the pantry last week. The three of us, and the dog and the cat, could weather a month of quarantine. Right now, this situation is not a threat for most of the country, but here in western Washington an eerie pall has settled over us and suffused our every thought and movement.

March 12

Things are moving fast. All schools in King County are closed until late April. The opening of the major league baseball season is postponed. The NHL and the NBA have suspended play. The NCAA says there will be no March Madness.

From here at Ground Zero, it has become obvious that this viral vendetta is aimed at the Baby Boomers, and at the stragglers left over from the Greatest Generation. Of the 26 who have died in Washington State, the average age is 80.

“There is, uh, just one more thing…”

When it was just one Seattle area nursing home infected by Covid-19, the Life Center in Kirkland, the news told us of family members who had been in and out of there in the weeks before the first case, and of the staff going in and out, and of a group of nursing students who had worked there temporarily. Now there are 10 nursing homes with residents who have contracted Covid-19.

Though the virus appears dramatically less fatal for those under 50, younger healthier people can contract the virus, not show symptoms, and yet still infect at-risk populations.

Columbo "I couldn't help noticing... that the people who are dying of this virus... these people are old... and it got me thinking... could it be... that the Millennials... have finally found a way... to rid themselves of the Baby Boomers?"

The Blame Game

Who is responsible for the coronavirus? Trump blames China. Way back in 1963, I blamed every bad event on the Bossa Nova. I can still hear Eydie Gormé's singing voice in my head, her paean to “the dance of love.”

The havoc is not just here in the USA. Covid-19 has global reach. I think that, at some point, masses of people will stop the social distancing and embrace the culling of the herd. They will go back to living a normal daily life in spite of the risk.

Have you ever thought that the people of the Earth will only come together in the face of an attack by aliens? Have you ever thought that angry Mother Earth is reacting to our pollution and is poised to shake off a few billion fleas?

It seems strange that on St. Patrick's Day, all the bars are closed and there is no beer in the house... but Megan is making corned beef and cabbage for dinner, with a 6 PM cocktail hour featuring… quarantinis.

Are you puzzled by the panic-buying of toilet paper? I found one essay that attempts to explain this phenomenon. A consumer psychologist calls it "retail therapy." We buy to manage our emotional state. It's about taking back control in a world where you feel out of control. The panic-buying of toilet paper plays to three fundamental psychological needs... autonomy (I'm in control)... community (We are all doing this together)... and competence (It's the smart thing to do).

The Wall Street Journal “A generational war is brewing over the coronavirus. So far, most young Covid-19 patients have experienced mild or no symptoms from the virus, while the more severe cases are concentrated among those aged 50 and over. Italy's mortality rate for those up to age 29 is zero percent. In defiance of government restrictions, carefree youths are crowding bars in Europe and enjoying end-of-the-world parties. In a display of juvenile gallows humor, #BoomerRemover is trending on Twitter. Millennial push-back against social distancing measures could undo all the efforts to slow the spread of the virus."

The First Day of Spring

Do you remember? …standing in line in the hallway in grade school, children waiting to receive a vaccination. Was that smallpox, the one that created the circular scar on the upper left arm? I remember lining up inside the city’s Ohio National Guard armory and drinking a liquid with a sugar cube from a small paper cup, the Jonas Salk cocktail.

College spring breakers enjoying southern beaches are being shamed for blowing off social distancing, but the shaming is having no effect. On this first day of spring in Seattle, the sun is shining, the neighborhood is quiet, the buses are empty, all street corner newspaper machines have been removed, pollution is down, people are out walking their dogs, maintaining social distance, but still chatting. There are sad stories coming out of this chapter of "America the Beautiful," but there was also an impromptu party last evening on the street below, where two couples wearing down vests enjoyed sundown cocktail hour, each while standing on their grassy parking strip with the concrete street pavement separating them. It didn't take long for the old reality to end and the new reality to begin. “I’ll have another quarantini, please.”

Capitalism versus Socialism

Paul Krugman "Republicans insist that we should fight the coronavirus with trickle-down economics. Democrats think we should focus on directly helping Americans in need."

Reader Comment "Republican economics is based on the lord/serf relationship. Republicans know well the sharecropper mentality of its MAGA constituents, who are thankful for any crumbs that fall from the master's table."

Reader Comment "Trump says, The cure can't be worse than the disease. If Trump could make a similar but honest statement, he might say, The deaths of thousands of Americans is preferable to economic slow-down. I say, In the face of disaster, the only path forward is solidarity and mutual concern.

I was hoping that Jesus would return as a stand-up comedian, but no... the Second Coming is the Antichrist, Donald Trump. Jesus embodies love and sacrifice, the goodness in life. Trump embodies the worst human traits. He is the essence of bad faith. The Republican base stomps through their lives swinging their darkest instincts like bludgeons. They see themselves in Trump and feel vindicated.

Wall Street, the corporations and our homegrown oligarchs love it when the masses are predictable. Covid-19 has shut down consumer predictability, and our professional greedsters are sweating bullets. We, the masses, can now see our economic clout at work. The next step is to use our consumer leverage to press the greedy to act for the good of the environment, the climate, health care and humanity.

If we look at the USA as a laboratory experiment, we see one group enacting measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, while the defiant control group across our southern tier ironically embraces a devil-may-care attitude. Trump predicts the Covid threat will be over by Easter, when Trump-loving southern evangelicals will pack the churches and megachurches like God-fearing sardines. Meanwhile, Jesus just told me that on Easter, he is going to remain in his tomb and shelter in place.