The single greatest act of human kindness in history

Yup, talking about the virus again today.

A couple days ago NPR host Alisa Chang talked with Scott Greer. He’s a political scientist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. So the school of public health needs a staff political scientist.

They played excerpts of various governors complaining about how little help they are getting from the federal government. Then Greer talks about the playbooks for public health – who does what at the local, state, and federal levels. And then the nasty guy and his minions ignored those playbooks. Said Greer, “You can't just shake it all up and expect everything to be fine.”

Local and state governments simply don’t have the resources for something this big. And federal leadership depends on someone in charge to make sure everyone is speaking with one voice, who can give authoritative guidance, who can back up governors for taking risky action, who can deploy federal resources. That federal leadership is missing.

So governors are freelancing. They’re also working together with other states in the West Coast Pact and the New England association – which means they’re recreating federalism. These pacts became united states.

When the vaccine is available are we going to have this procurement mess all over again?



Laura Clawson of Daily Kos reports that doctors still have a lot to learn about COVID-19. They know what to do when a patient has Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome – put the patient on a ventilator. But they’re finding that may not be the best solution when a COVID patient has ARDS. One doctor said it’s more like high-altitude sickness than pneumonia. So they’re trying other treatments. For example, have the patient lie on their stomach.



I visit the 91-divoc data most evenings to see charts showing what the virus has been doing to us. This evening I looked at the cases by country. I chose the US to be highlighted and asked for New Deaths/Day and a one week trendline. And the US has a flat trendline! (Well, it did for April 18 data) The country has been hovering around 2000 deaths a day for perhaps a week and a half. That’s still a lot of dying, but the daily tally isn’t increasing. But don’t grab your friends hand had dash to a restaurant. A few days ago the tally was almost 5000 deaths. And the total number of cases in the US is still rising

Mark Sumner of Kos has also noticed the flattening lines. But he says that the number of cases doesn’t match the reported deaths. Which means:

All the evidence indicates that the number of cases of COVID-19 in the United States has not plateaued. But the rate of testing has.

In particular our ability to test has flattened. We’re still only testing those who already have symptoms (sometimes only when symptoms are severe). We’re not testing the general public. Inadequate testing “generates a false sense of progress. And that’s deadly.”



There was a lot of news about COVID-19 aboard the US Aircraft Carrier Theodore Roosevelt. The captain pleaded for help and was removed. The ship docked in Guam where the whole crew could be evaluated. 600 sailors tested positive for the virus – and what is alarming is that 60% had no symptoms. That’s far higher than previous estimates. Keep this in mind. For every 100 people who get the virus, 60 of them may show no symptoms at all while still being contagious and may wonder why they have to stay home. And two will die in agony.



About those 60 people: There have been armed protests against the stay at home orders, one right here in Michigan. Laura Clawson of Kos reports these protests are not grass-roots. They have big pockets behind them. For example, says Clawson, the protest at the state capitol was organized and funded by the Michigan Freedom Fund, which is backed by the billionaire DeVos family (as in Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education).

Then Clawson reminds us that only 20% of people would return to normal activities immediately after the lifting of government restrictions.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer didn’t budge, saying, “It's better to be six feet apart right now than six feet under.”

In response to the protests Susan Demas of the Michigan Advance wrote:

For a party that’s ostensibly dedicated to the sanctity of life, Republicans have repeatedly and flagrantly demonstrated how little they care about their neighbors dying of an excruciating disease that can feel like shards of glass have filled your lungs.

Where is the humanity?

Her whole article is a strong critique of the GOP in Michigan. As is this one, which also explores the contradictions in the GOP supposed claim of sanctity of life.

Randy Bryce tweeted:

Imagine all those guys protesting in Minnesota today being upset about the government telling them what they can do with their bodies.
Bless their hearts.

CleverNickName of the Kos community wrote:

America had come together, setting aside all of our own wants and needs, to engage in the single greatest act of human kindness in history. We all stayed home, at great expense and inconvenience, so the most vulnerable among us wouldn’t die a preventable death.

I want you to think about this for a moment, before I continue: There is someone you love, who is at risk of serious infection and death, right now. I am staying home for that person, so you don’t lose someone you love. I am not the only person doing this. You’re doing this. Your family and your neighbors are doing this. We are, all of us, doing this, together, even though it is hard, it is scary, it is frustrating.

But we are doing it, together, because we care about our fellow humans.
…
Donald Trump looked at the single greatest act of human kindness in the history of our species, and he felt threatened by it. So he is doing everything he can to destroy it, to destroy us.

And for what? To consolidate his own money and his own power.

Mark Sumner suggests ways that life after the virus will be different.

Since so many people are getting used to working from home it is unlikely cities will need so much office space. Those office buildings can be converted to condos and apartments, which could solve our homeless problems.

Managers are seeing that workers are sufficiently productive without being at desks where managers can frequently check on them. They are also seeing a lot of those meetings don’t need to happen. Many companies will see they need fewer managers.

We’re now seeing who the real “essential” employees are. And it isn’t the CEO. Perhaps they’ll start being paid according to how essential they are.

Everything associated with the virus is an argument for the progressive agenda, such as universal health care, universal basic income, and the Green New Deal.