Exmoor Lockdown Diary 10 (Part One) - Bob Bell's Coronavirus Letter From America
So to the lockdown. And I am immediately aghast at the fact I have started a sentence with 'so'. How did that happen? A surfeit of listening to talking heads, I fear.
The obvious simile is one I may have used before - Britt and I feel like actors in a science fiction movie, a very slow moving sci-fi movie. The streets are fairly deserted, as are the highways and freeways. The good part of this is that the air quality is noticeably better, and not just here. I have read reports from all around the world that this is so.
Supermarkets are doing a roaring business with, strangely, toilet paper being the most in demand commodity. Not wine nor beer. The TP issue is very odd, as runny bum is not one of the results of this particular plague.
People wander the shelves, some wearing masks, others just trying to keep a distance. The cashiers are invariably clad in gloves and masks, and I salute them, working as they are in the very front lines. Apart from the TP, and of course hand sanitiser, there are not really any food shortages, not in the long run that is.
Logistics of a panicked population does mean that there are temporary runs on things, but stocks are good in the warehouses. One does wonder what may happen if the virus lays waste to the thousands of farm workers, mainly undocumented and thus constantly harassed by the Trumpistas.
For my money, the biggest potential disaster in all this is the “for pay” US health system. Those without insurance will inevitably postpone doctor visits or calls, thus not only getting sicker themselves, but also sickening others. Those that do get treated will probably face huge and financially crippling medical bills after they recover.
That is the bad part. The hopefully good part is that this emergency might just - and I emphasise might just - tilt this country towards a fairer and more equitable healthcare and welfare system.
This pandemic illustrates the righteousness, and I can think of no better word, of Bernie Sander's crusade for universal health coverage for EVERYONE in this country. The pandemic has ripped away the veil from the current system, just as it has ripped away the phoney veneer of the supposed competence of the Trump administration.
Andrew Cuomo, the Governor of New York State, has been holding televised press conferences every morning. NY, as you probably know, has a huge amount of people sick with the virus. His pressers are a model of clarity, straight speaking, thoughtfulness and empathy. If he doesn't know the answer to a question, he says so.
It is a remarkable experience listening to him, and watching him - the exact opposite of the bungling, bombastic and lying Trump, whose daily briefings are basically propaganda exercises. I wish, as apparently do many other Americans, that Cuomo was running for President.
Britt (my wife) is working from home and, as for me… Well, it has made no difference. I stay at home anyway. I have to write a bunch of stuff for this Hesp fellow, plus I have a garden to look after, to say nothing of building Britt's jeep. Yes, I admit, I am still getting greasy half the day. Ink on one hand, grease on the other.
People are, I think, worried. As I don't really talk to anyone, it is hard to gauge the mood. The general feeling is that it is all so unprecedented, so unmapped. And that feeling is right on the money, because it is unprecedented, unmapped. A lot of people are going to find themselves in a very dark place financially when all is said and done.
And a few - comparatively - will be very dead. I do think that most folks consider the “stay at home - social distancing” thing to be sensible. I am sure a lot of people are going overboard with worry - probably unnecessarily - and an equal amount are being very stupid and selfish. The latter are probably the young, who are, as we know, immortal.
As I said earlier, I am interested to see how society as a whole comes out of this. It is a wake up call. But one peculiarly American response has been a huge increase in gun sales. Just what the country needs, more firepower.
