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The Ship Comes In

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New Yorkers flocked to see the USNS Comfort pull into port despite warnings from the New York police to keep their distance from each other.  It just shows how much emotions govern our instincts, rather than heeding the call to reason.  This is the first high profile sign of federal relief for coronavirus-stricken states, and one can well imagine His Trumpness will milk it for all it is worth in his "highly rated" press briefings.

Trump has consistently downplayed the emergency needs of the hardest hit states.  He doesn't seem to think New York needs as many ventilators as Gov. Cuomo has requested, and that Gov. "Half" Whitmer of Michigan has greatly overblown the situation in her state.  He is apparently only willing to work with governors who are nice to him, trying to make relief contingent on highly visible signs of support.  As Yogi Berra might say, it's quid pro quo all over again.

Sadly, this is the only way our dear president knows how to operate.  For him, everything is transactional, including federal emergency aid.  He hasn't shown an ounce of empathy throughout this crisis, and only last week was asserting that Americans can get back to work by Easter, as if this spring break has gone on long enough.  A view that has been vociferously supported by conservative political pundits and pastors alike, leading to the viral catch phrase, die for the economy.  While those weren't exactly Lt. Gov. Patrick's words that is what he implied during his Fox interview with Tucker Carlson.

Even Trump's new face of medical expertise, Dr. Deborah Birx, conservatively estimates 200,000 persons could die from coronavirus in a best case scenario.  That's nearly three times more than die from flu each year.  Leave it to Trump to put a positive spin on this by saying that is better than the 2.2 million deaths initially estimated if no social distancing guidelines had been put in place.  Nevertheless, Trump has yet to issue a nationwide lockdown, leaving it up to governors to determine the severity of the crisis in their states.

We have become inured to the politicization of everything from Arizona Ice Tea to vaccines, but this is a whole new level of cynicism, as Trump literally plays with people's lives.  The USNS Comfort was long overdue, which I guess is why so many persons came out to see the giant naval emergency relief vessel, but New York still needs ventilators, as do many states, resulting in a bidding wars for medical supplies.

What has trickled in is not nearly enough to battle the exponentially increasing number of cases and deaths resulting from the virus.  The US leads all countries in the number of reported cases, now that we finally have nationwide testing, and the number of deaths increased dramatically this past week.  Trump doesn't want to be reminded of all the dismissive statements he made earlier this month, crassly claiming he is top of this pandemic.

He finally has accepted that he won't be able to reopen America by Easter Sunday but doesn't want this lockdown to continue beyond April 30.  Oddly enough, stocks had a good day yesterday despite having responded favorably to his initial statement last week that he wanted businesses open by April 12.  Cold comfort for a nation struggling to come to terms with an invisible enemy.


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