I'm losing patience.
coronavirus.
COVID-19.
politics around the US response (or lack thereof).
I get it. There's a new bug in town. In China, it has been pretty bad. Listen - I love China. Like... a lot. At the risk of sounding racist or xenophobic- I will categorically say: China’s culture of cleanliness and/or sanitation is vastly different than ours in the west, and in my humble opinion it is inferior. It surprises me ZERO percent that SARS, avian flu, swine flu and now this have all been rough in China.
It has started spreading pretty fast in the US now that it's here. We’ll see how deadly it is in the US.
As much as I love China, I hate Trump more. So please take this next bit understanding that.
WHAT IS GOING ON?!? It’s normally the right wing, tinfoil hat wearing, conspiracy theory believing but jobs that beat the panic drum on Fox News.... and the progressives and democrats calling for calm, logic and reason... and now it’s the opposite?!? Democrats and liberals are sounding the alarms on NPR and complaining that the White House isn’t doing enough while most republicans are like “meh”.
I wonder... if the opposite would have happened. If Trump would have demanded closing schools and implemented modified martial law and rationing... people would have LOST THIER MINDS. Headlines would have been about abuse of power and totalitarian rule with references to Nazi germany.
I really do hate Trump. Please know this.
I just don’t understand the panic. Thousands of my fellow North Americans are going to contract this. Some number of those will die. My seemingly similar “don’t panic” attitude feels a little more in line with Trump that I’m comfortable with... and yet - here I am. Hence some of my additional dissonance.
The noise around this situation is deafening, exhausting, and as far as I can tell... mostly garbage.
For now... I’m going to not panic. I’m going to maintain good hygiene and dare I say normal flu season precautions... and then check in below for updates.