I hate to do this, but I can’t avoid it anymore. The news out of Italy is grim.
By Saturday, Italy had more than 5,800 cases of the virus, 233 of them fatal, with increases of almost 800 infections and 49 deaths from the day before. Only China has had more people die after contracting the virus.
All of the country’s schools are closed, and now they’re taking extreme measures.
Italy’s government early Sunday took the extraordinary step of locking down much of the country’s north, restricting movement for about a quarter of the Italian population in regions that serve as the country’s economic engine.
The move represents the most sweeping effort outside China to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and is tantamount to sacrificing the Italian economy in the short term to save it from the ravages of the virus in the long term.
By taking such tough measures, Italy, which is suffering the worst outbreak in Europe, sent a signal that restrictive clampdowns at odds with some of the core values of Western democracies may be necessary to contain and defeat the virus…
…The measures will turn stretches of Italy’s wealthy north — including the economic and cultural capital of Milan and landmark tourist destinations such as Venice — into quarantined enclaves. Mr. Conte did not say how long the restrictions would last, but an earlier draft weighed by the government on Saturday night said the decree would be in force until at least April 3. The travel bans will prevent the free movement of roughly 16 million people.
When I picked my son up from school on Friday, I privately thought to myself that I would be surprised if he’d be coming back on Monday. When I got home, there was a letter from the superindendent of the district that gave us updates, including that they were working on a plan for possible school closings. So far, there is no announcement that they’re going ahead with it, but they’ve begun closing schools in nearby Bucks County, and I can’t imagine it will take much longer for my son’s district to follow suit.
It’s not unthinkable that we’ll soon be talking about restricting the movement of million or even tens of millions of people. I have no idea what this will do to the global economy or what it will mean politically. I doubt it’s going to put people in a good or generous mood.
Yep, this will bite us hard once coronavirus gets entrenched in more states. The blue states will likely be better off due to rainy day funds and better staffed emergency management departments. The red states where governors and legislators insist this is a hoax will once again be mooching off the blue states when they exhaust their resources. Or go crying to Uncle Sam. Except this time those red states put in exactly who they said they want, and will tell them to go pull up by their (already badly stretched) bootstraps.
If nothing else, this is Orange Shitgibbon’s Katrina. Except without shame, there will be nothing bad enough to force an admission of error, and belatedly respond.
The problem is that the irresponsible Red States WILL be granted access to Uncle Sam’s bottomless welfare apparatus (just as with the ramped-up “natural” global warming disaster relief) and WILL be allowed to mooch off the largesse of Blue States in this crisis as well. There’s no alternative in a public health crisis.
That this happens time after time should be infuriating, and should result in accountability consequences, but Blue Staters and their Reps keep putting up with this irresponsible shit, without even so much as mentioning the scandalous behavior by “conservative” America. Blue Staters are the true fools, with Red State America (and senators like Cruz) dying of laughter.
Well, I’m in my late 70s with COPD and a target on my back. I just hope I can hold out long enough to cast my ballot in the General Election.
Be well! May we all be around to vote in November.
Stay safe and well.
I’ve been using my Cafe/Lounge space as a catch-all for news articles about Covid-19 since last Wednesday. I suspect you are right that it is only a matter of time before we experience more school closings, etc. I am cancelling a conference appearance due to concerns about flying at this time (airplanes and airports are effectively petri dishes under the best of circumstances). I’ll be curious if I still travel onsite to AP Reading in June (one of my moneymakers). My friends and I are already wondering. If we have several million cases by that time, that’s a ton of disruption. Another conference – also in June – may end up postponed or canceled. Been doing some stocking – not to the extreme that I’ve already experienced in my community in the event that the city is quarantined. And worrying about some relatives and a person in my household w/somewhat compromised immune systems. This will get worse. That question is how much worse.
It was predictable that this horrible, malevolent, kakistocratic President would face a crisis during his term which could not be successfully dealt with by conman and blameshifting behaviors. It took a while, but here we are. It will be very costly to the President that he has personally trashed the ability for the nation to unite in response to this crisis. We’ll do the best we can under the bad circumstances, but there will not be national unity in response to this. Hell, even the truly horrible W. Bush behaved in ways which absolutely did bring the people in our nation together for at least a brief time after 9/11. Trump is uncapable and unwilling to do such a thing.