No One Is a Spectator to This Pandemic

And that will change us—and our society—in unpredictable ways.

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“Where were you when …?”

We’ve all asked this sort of question. Where were you when the planes hit the Twin Towers? Where were you when you heard JFK was shot? Where were you when you heard Kobe Bryant died? 

The unstated thing about such questions is the assumption that you were a spectator of one kind or another when something momentous happened. And for most Americans, that’s how we experience historic events—as spectators. 

The 9/11 attacks were a huge event for most of us who were alive then. But how many lives did 9/11 directly and meaningfully affect, particularly outside New York and Washington? Not many in the grand scheme of things. (Hassles at airports don’t count.)

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  1. NORMAN F HAPKE

    I am a lifetime member.I have become frustrated with the tone of much Of your writing, Specifically about Trump. I did not nor will I vote for him And am appalled at much of what he does.However,I expected that while the dispatch would be trump- skeptica, it would not be obsessed with him.You seem to be heading Toward the bulwark In your dislike of him And over-Analyzing everything he does. While I agree with David French about much of this, I am tired of Hearing it interminably. Are you all one-trick ponies? When I listen to Commentary's daily podcast I am struck at how different And the more analytical it is And how they talk carefully About important issues. I would certainly like For you to the emulate them Or change your brand Somewhat To notice The anti-anti-trump forces. (pardon the caps-dictating.

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      John Schoch

      There is no Trump reference in this piece that I can see. I also listen to the Commentary podcast and see no difference between the two organizations on how they talk about the POTUS. In fact I listen Mr. Goldbergs podcasts and many do not mention Trump at all or only tangentially. Obsessed? Absolutely not.

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      1. NORMAN F HAPKE

        Only place I could find to try to get to management. Gberg a favorite but tired of French's transparent dislike of Trump that comes out just as I tire of A. Klavan's and VDH (both acquaintances.

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          John Schoch

          I understand your points and agree about Klavan and VDH. the Trump enablers are everywhere, just not at the Dispatch to the same degree. Unfortunately, Trump is the President and can't be ignored as much as he would be as a private citizen. IMHO, the sooner he is former President Trump the better. Thanks for the response.

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  2. Anthony

    https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/04/24/this_virus_is_tough_but_history_provides_perspective_the_1968_pandemic_and_the_vietnam_war_115226.html

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    Ken Smith

    I'm actually not convinced that richer nations will emerge sooner. I think there's a case to be made that poor nations will have the virus sweep through their populations, unmitigated and uncontrolled, and that they'll fairly quickly (and very painfully) reach something like herd immunity. In this scenario, the richer countries will have fewer deaths per capita, but those deaths will be stretched out over a longer period, and consequently the poor countries will be back to something like normal while the rest of us are still locked up, waiting for a vaccine.

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    Susan Carusi

    I happened today to run across a reference to flu pandemics of the 20th century. Sure, everyone knows about 1918. But how about the 1957 pandemic that killed almost 70,000 US citizens? And the Hong Kong pandemic in 1968 that killed between 1 and 4 million worldwide. How quickly we forget!

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  5. Caleb Doxsey

    After 9/11 terrorism was constantly on everyone’s mind, even though, in the broad scheme of things it was never a particularly likely thing to happen to you. Same goes for the fear of child kidnappings leading to an entire generation of children never going outside to play on their own (even though statistically kids are actually probably safer than they were before)

    I suspect we’re going to enter a new phase where people become irrationally terrified of catching a virus. We used to tolerate getting a cold every year, and besides a few doctors, no one ever really made a big deal out of the flu.

    The flip side of the comparison of the Coronavirus to the flu, is that the tens of thousands of deaths we endured from it every year are now going to become intolerable.

    It’s amazing what fear can do to a society. I’ve been critical of these shutdowns - I don’t think they were well thought through at all, they’re ultimately ineffective, and none of the predictions seem to be panning out the way they were supposed to.

    But I hadn’t considered just how much panic was driving this. Politicians are taking extreme measures because that’s what the people want.

    But what country can survive a permanent shutdown? I feel like we unmoored several of the key building blocks to our society. The house appears stable but can it really continue to stand?

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    Janet W

    Born in 1953, I do remember the Cuban Missile Crisis with our resulting bomb shelter, where I was when Kennedy was shot, the day my mother died and other myriad National and personal events that have marked my life and those of many others. This pandemic is the worst moment I can recall perhaps because of the fear I feel for myself, my friends and my loved ones. The lack of political national leadership during this crisis has done little to ease my concerns. I thank God everyday for Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci. As a Georgian, I am sitting on the sidelines in my home while our governor opens non-essential businesses before our state has flattened the curve or expanded testing. The hospital in my town is recruiting student volunteers from the local high school and school system employees to assist with running supplies and directing the sick to proper stations in anticipation of a new flood of cases spurred by the governor’s actions. My young grandchildren can tell me all about the virus. Yes, this will change us if it doesn’t kill us first. I do know some who have died. Before it’s over, I’m certain, I will know many more as will many of you.

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    Where was I when the Corona/Covid-19/Wuhan/Chinese virus hit? On sabbatical, at home watching videos of Zoe and Pippa.

    have I missed anything in 2020?

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    Earl King

    While all of us shared the experience of staying home(when we are off), most will never share the experience of the health care providers, EMT's Paramedics and Doctors. Even as a Paramedic I got out of the ER after dropping a patient off...Nurses, Doctors and Patient Care Assoc. were stuck. Death is common for those of us in pre-hospital care and in-hospital care. this time with so much death, so quickly in the Hospitals are going to leave scars. My last Medic shift in March involved me having to tell two parents their 16 yr old was dead. Overdose....You see our other killers are still at work. So while I listen to all the armchair pundits spout off about this or that....I know they likely haven't experienced as much as we in the health field all have. I'm not sure if they experience a single death of parent, grandparent or spouse or child will have the profound society changes you are expecting. I do think business will change. Office worker CFO's are rethinking their 85,000 sq ft. of office space as we speak.

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    Pat Riot

    I have been having fun with a mental challenge I could call, "let's guess how things will be different post-COVID".

    On the highest level, this game is like, "what is different post-9/11" but add about three zeros to the net effect it will have on our daily lives. The annoying crap we all had to put up with at airports post-9/11 is going to happen *everywhere* now, every grocery store, retail store, restaurant, school, bar, etc. And god help you if you actually do want to fly:

    https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/economy-class-virus/index.html

    (That is just a small taste I reckon).

    And while individuals won't be shoving UV light where the sun doesn't shine per Trump's medical advice yesterday, there will be UV zappers *everywhere* and then these things will cause their own problems as we all end up spending the equivalent of 2.5 hours per day in the tanning booth.

    And on the government level, look for a *massive* build of up supplies and excess capacity. Look for hospitals to be required to have an emergency ICU expansion plan with the corresponding idle capacity.

    And like 9/11 was basically the last major hijacking, I'm personally predicting this is the *last* time we are every severely impacted by a pandemic. I want to recall the words of Winston Churchill who is often attributed to have said:

    "You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else".

    And I would add, "and then they overreact in the extreme".

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  10. C White

    The data that keeps coming out — despite the fact that it doesn’t fit the narrative — is awfully encouraging. It appears that yes, the virus is very contagious, but about 15% of the population has probably had it — so you probably DO know someone who doesn’t know they had it — and most infections are asymptomatic. If these disparate data, Stanford, LA county, Boston, NY, etc. — which all point in the same direction — are correct, the the mortality rate is o/a bt 0.05 to 1% which is — get your fainting salts ready — comparable to seasonal flu. The mortality rate for working age adults is much lower.

    I am a physician and the hospitals where I work are nearly empty. We’ve flattened the curve to allow the hospitals to get ready for a surge — hospitals cannot stand at the ready to receive patients who aren’t coming if we keep up the social distancing. Readiness will degrade about the time fall arrives and the next flu/coronavirus season is on top of us. Now is the time to let working age people go back to work — and yes — get the virus (most won’t know they have it, and the ones who get sick will have a lot of resources available to take care of them). We need herd immunity fast or there will be a second wave this fall and we won’t be ready for it in terms of hospital capacity and resources. There is NO guarantee a vaccine will be available by the end of the year (i.e. after the next flu season) and may never be effective. Why are we letting models (that have been wildly inaccurate) inform our (political) decisions when we have data?

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      Idontdocute

      We also need to catch up with our elective surgeries, if we had enough PPE. We need to do that before we open the doors because right now the rules have gone off the game board. The community hospital is handing out one N95 a week and a paper bag to keep it in which isn't exactly standing at the ready. We still have to take care of our house before we can ask them to come out of theirs.

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      Earl King

      The current Covid-19 test is about 60% accurate. The Flu vaccine is anywhere from 40% to 60% accurate. Only half the country gets a Flu shot. This is going to be around for a while. Hopefully we'll learn why some are asymptomatic and why other perfectly healthy 40 year olds die. As for our system of warehousing seniors with 1 nurse to 24 pt's is likely to change. That is not good news, as the avg price of a nursing home in NJ is $13,000 a month. But, if we can keep them from dying from a pandemic it will be worth it...all knowing no matter what we do they will all still die.

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      lotus-eater_77

      I think you’re likely right about the vaccine. As I understand it, we have never developed an effective vaccine for a coronavirus. If this follows that same rubric and further, similar to other coronaviruses, that acquired immunity is only temporary, this could be a part of our lives for a very long time. It would seem like investment in therapeutics and more effective treatment protocols would be our best bet. Interested to hear a physician’s perspective though. Hopefully this being as common as the common cold isn’t how this pans out but hope is not a strategy.

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      1. C White

        We’ve had HIV now for 40 years and there’s no vaccine — despite a trillion of research dollars. All the other major vaccines we have — for measles, Ebola — have taken a minimum of seven years, and some as long as 40 years.

        What will happen is that the peaks will get smaller every flu season since more and more people will develop immunity — until the virus mutates and we’ll see a really bad year and then start the immunity battle all over again. Like wars — this ain’t going away. It’s just a question of how many 10s of trillions of dollars were going to spend to figure that out

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