Life is not a TV dinner.
–Motorhead
I’m generally in favor of the so-called “lockdown” policies that have been adopted in New York and New Jersey, but I also think that the policies have been slightly misconceptualized in the abstract, and are now starting to go somewhat off the rails in practice. Here are a couple of simple suggestions. Continue reading
I drove through the “epicenter of the global pandemic today.” What was it like? Nothing in particular.
Colleagues in the Department of Art at my university answered my earlier plea for medical supplies by offering up their hidden stash of nitrile gloves. So I drove from my home in Readington, New Jersey to the university in Lodi (Bergen County), and called security to let me in. The security guard, who’s seen me hundreds of times before over more than a decade, professed for the nth time not to know who I was. After some pro forma wrangling, interrogation, and perusing of my ID from-a-distance, he let me in. Continue reading
I just had an hour-long conversation with my brother Suleman, a doctor on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Ridgewood is located in Bergen County, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey. Bergen County is also where my university happens to be located. Continue reading
I’m starting up a project here at Policy of Truth that I call “The COVID-19 Narrative Project.” I suppose it involves a bit of wishful thinking: it’s a long-term project for when COVID-19 is brought fully under control. But I’d like to start now. Relevant information in the link just above. Please pass along to interested people in your networks (with the proviso that it’s a relatively low-priority issue at the moment).
Via my sister-in-law, Jessica Franklin, MD:
URGENT PSA FROM VALLEY HOSPITAL, RIDGEWOOD, NJ
Supplies
We are in the same situation as all hospitals and running extremely low on supplies. Our priority is to protect our staff and we are exploring all options to get much needed supplies.
Request for Supplies Issued to the Community
Via email, Valley has issued a request for surgical masks, N95 masks, non-latex gloves, and fluid-resistant isolation gowns to more than 300,000 members of our community.
If you know someone who may have supplies either at home or at a place of business, please ask them to drop the supplies off between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday – Friday at the hospital’s main entrance. A Valley staff member will be there beginning Monday to receive the supplies so those donating do not need to get out of their car.
Address: 223 N. Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450
This is from Marissa Cangin, an acquaintance of mine through my old friend, William Dale. Both work at City of Hope National Medical Center in California. William is Arthur M. Coppola Family Chair in Supportive Care Medicine there, and Marissa is an Assistant Clinical Professor–a clinical psychologist–in the Department of Supportive Care. (Marissa’s specialty is roughly what Felician’s PsyD program trains for.) My heartfelt gratitude to both of them, and to everyone at City of Hope (and elsewhere), for doing what they do. My preferred blood-donation organization happens to be the Red Cross, and I’m going to make my way over there–in my case, Flemington, NJ–at first opportunity. Please take Marissa’s suggestion to heart. Continue reading
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.
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 Washington Examiner is a right-wing paper, and it’s angry at us. It’s trying to cut through this coronavirus noise, and tell us something. My God, why is no one listening? What will it take?
Iran repeatedly attacks US troops while coronavirus outbreak distracts public attention.
Repeatedly! And during a pandemic! The nerve of those people! Continue reading
I just got a frightened text message from a friend who read my last post, and asked me to convince his teenager both to take coronavirus more seriously, and to be more rigorous about social distancing. He’s one of a small handful of people to have expressed horror at that post, either on Facebook or offline.
This is the article that did it for him:
Italy suffered its worst day of the coronavirus outbreak Tuesday, recording 475 deaths. The epicenter of the pandemic in Europe, Italy is further along an infection curve other countries in the west appear to be following, and its healthcare system has buckled under the weight of 35,000 cases.
I agreed to do it. He thanks me for being “Dial-a-Philosopher.” Continue reading
A sample of comments that my wife and I managed to hear in a single day, Tuesday, March 17, from people talking about the coronavirus (except for #9, from different places in New Jersey).
(1) 11:30 am:
This whole coronavirus thing just strikes me as bullshit.
Policy of Truth 