Coronavirus Diary (7): You Heard It Here First

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Suleman Khawaja, MD, Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, New Jersey:

I need to decompress a bit. Work today marked the transition to a war zone. And the difference between the combatants and the politicians who sent us to battle while watching from a safe distance has become stark.

–Policy of Truth, March 18

Mariel Padilla, Express Desk, New York Times:

‘It Feels Like a War Zone’: Doctors and Nurses Plead for Masks on Social Media

As supplies have dwindled, doctors and nurses have improvised ways to make their stock last. Now they’re urging leaders to help.

—The New York Times, March 19

5 thoughts on “Coronavirus Diary (7): You Heard It Here First”

  1. It’s not just a war–it’s a war without ammunition, at least on our side.

    At a White House briefing on Thursday, President Trump said millions of masks were in production and that the federal government had made efforts to address the shortages, though he did not provide details. But he said it was largely up to governors to deal with the problem.

    “The federal governments aren’t supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping,” Mr. Trump said. “You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.”

    He also said there were no immediate plans to activate the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law that authorizes presidents to take extraordinary action to force American industry to ramp up production of equipment needed for national security.

    I doubt Donald Trump has ever studied the history of the Korean War. If he had, he would see the irony in describing COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus.” Like his blustering forbear Douglas MacArthur, it has not occurred to him that arrogance only takes you so far–for instance, up to the Yalu River, when the Chinese army enters the equation and threatens to push you into the sea. Then you realize belatedly that the war really turned out to be more than a police action after all. And with all due respect to our dear leader, when you are fighting what he calls a “war,” the federal government is indeed a shipping clerk. Let’s hope we can fight the enemy back to the 38th parallel and institute a DMZ there. God help us if we can’t.

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  2. This author has been widely derided for writing this piece. “Too emotional,” “too panicky,” “too alarmist,” “too sentimental,” “too ancedotal” etc.–the usual litany of veiled sexist attacks on anyone’s, but especially a woman’s, expression of genuine emotion in our emotionally stunted culture. I don’t see the problem with what she says, or how she says it, but read the comments (at your own risk) if you want to see what a population looks like when it dislikes women more than it respects the requirements of human life.

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