As Election 2020 stomps and staggers to its conclusion — almost certainly a solid Biden victory, and great odds of flipping the Senate as well — the coronavirus epidemic churns on. And the latest trend lines, coupled with the onset of colder weather in the northern US, look worrisome.
It’s not just the slowly rising trend line. It’s that this new rise of COVID-19 is happening as we head into the crucial colder-weather months... exactly as epidemiologists have worried.
CNN has published a piece to this effect. Quoting Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration. He says, quote:
"I think we're about two or three weeks behind Europe -- so we're about a week away from starting to enter a period where we're going to see a rapid acceleration in cases.”
and
”We're seeing hospitalizations go up in 42 states right now, cases are going up in 45 states, and there really is no backstop. This fall and winter season is when the coronavirus is going to want to spread."
Dr. Fauci, our sanest top federal/national expert in all of this, is saying similar in recent days: "This looks like we're going to have a very difficult fall and winter.”
Meanwhile, Trump is ramping up the denialism, trash-talking Fauci, and railing against CNN, even calling them “bastards” for covering COVID-19 as prominently as they are. Most bizarrely, Trump is now attacking Biden as a leader who would “want to listen to Fauci.” Like that’s going to be a persuadable attack line, just as the epidemic looks like it’s on track to worsen nationally right around Election Day.
I want COVID-19 to be over, too. I hate it. We all do. But at this moment, it is the disturbing opposite of over. It’s spreading further, infecting more of us, in many if not most parts of America.
My sincere wishes for health and resilience, in body and spirit, for all of us in the coming Fall and Winter seasons. Especially for the most vulnerable among us. It is very possible that a new wave of the disease is on the near horizon.
Please remain careful, even amid all these clarion calls to “VOTE!!!” We have to do both, rescue America and not personally get sick.
And also… if your extended family refuses to be apart for Thanksgiving Day, please consider getting everyone in it to take on some quarantine measures the full week before. Distancing and isolating more than usual; masking up more than usual. It can make all the difference. Thank you.