As I sit here about to write this final piece for the April issue, I checked the COVID-19 scoreboard to see that the US has gone over 1000 deaths for the day, the most ever so far, but probably a normal figure for a number of days or months hereon in.
The blame game is already starting, with many criticisms of the president. Yet most of those criticisms come from people who, from day one, criticized the president for not having any government experience, for a lack of intellectual curiosity, for a personality disorder, and for gauging his success as president to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
So why would anybody be surprised at the lack of leadership in this from the top?
Back in December, when the disease was beginning to percolate in Wuhan Province, I took a trip to Washington, DC, to visit the Newseum, a museum dedicated to the media, which was closing at the end of the year.
The first exhibit I saw was a short movie that examined the New York Times’ coverage of the Holocaust as it was happening. Over the years, many Americans believe that, had they known the extent of the German persecution project, they might have done something about it. The documentary went through the Times’ coverage of the Jewish extermination in real time. In fact, there were extensive articles written throughout the war. The problem, according to historians, was that the stories were buried inside the pages of the paper. In other words, the facts were there, but nobody was shouting them out – at least not loud enough to get anyone to do something. Whether doing something was politically possible was another story – it was mentioned in the movie that FDR asked Sulzberger, the Times’ publisher, to downplay the reporting because he didn’t want the general public to think that they were sacrificing their sons in battle in order to save Jews.
In any case, at the beginning of March, my memory is that life in New York City was going on pretty much normally. In fact, the first day of the month I went downtown to help celebrate the imminent opening of Gage and Tollner, an historic Fulton Street restaurant that is being brought back to life by three Red Hook restaurateurs. There was a big crowd eating hors d’oeuvres and oysters and salads, served in the open air, which, back in the pre-pandemic days, was perfectly normal.
On the tenth, I journeyed with a cousin visiting from overseas to Gottlieb’s, a Jewish appetizing restaurant that caters to the nearby Hasidic population. We were to meet a third cousin for some old world plates of food. It turned out that day was the holiday of Purim, and we had to drive through streets full of crazed Hasid’s celebrating one of the few Jewish victories that the religion remembers.
When we got there, the place was closed, due to the holiday, and the third cousin was visibly disappointed. I suggested going to Peter Luger’s, which was just on the other side of Broadway. Nobody thought we could get in without a reservation, but thinking of the uncomplimentary review they received in the Times, I convinced them to give it a shot.
It turns out we were received with open arms, and multiple empty tables were evident. It was like going to the Court Street diner, as we got a nice table right away. The food was great, and I asked whether the lack of customers was due to the review. “Oh no, we only had one off week after the review,” they told me. “All our international reservations are canceled. There are no tourists in town.”
Even then it didn’t sink in that we were in for some extraordinary times. It wasn’t until the next day, March 11, when the NBA put a halt to the season, that I realized things were not going to be normal for some time.
Why such a surprise? Why did the whole country venture to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, despite the fact that COVID-19 was already a named infectious disease?
One would think that somebody, whether in government, the media, or maybe even a celebrity, might have alerted the nation to the need to deal with the situation sooner, rather than later. But I couldn’t find anyone. For the record, here is what I found, going back through the pages of the New York Times. All these stories ran this year.
January 6 – “China Grapples With Mystery Pneumonia-Like Illness” – reporting on 59 people in Wuhan who have been sickened – cause unclear. Symptom include high fever, difficulty breathing and lung lesions.
January 8 – “China Identifies New Virus Causing Pneumonialike Illness” – identified as a coronavirus, the announcement signifies that researchers are making progress in containing the outbreak, which has caused a panic in central China.
January 10 – “China Reports First Death From New Virus” – a 61 year-old man, who had also suffered from chronic liver disease and abdominal tumors. Since all 59 cases were customers at the same Wuhan market, there is no evidence that the virus can be spread between humans, according to a Chinese health commission.
January 15 – “Japan and Thailand Confirm New Cases of Chinese Coronavirus” – Malik Peiris, a public health virologist in Hong Kong, is quoted saying that if it is really true that these new cases are from people arriving from China but who had not visited any seafood markets, then “that is very concerning, for sure.”
January 20 – “China Confirms New Coronavirus Spreads from Humans to Humans” – The World Health Organization, in response to this news, announces an emergency meeting “to ascertain whether the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, and what recommendations should be made to manage it.”
January 21 – “North Korea Bans Foreign Tourists Over Coronavirus, Tour Operator Says” – this is bad news for the North Korean economy, because tourism is one of the few industries not covered by US sanctions, the story reports.
January 21 – “First Patient With Wuhan Coronavirus Is Identified in the U.S.” – identified as the “Wuhan Coronavirus,” it has been detected in a 30-year-old Washington state resident recently returned from China.
February 9 – “As Deaths Mount, China Tries to Speed Up Coronavirus Testing” – testing kits take too long and are in short supply, in China.
February 10 – “U.K. Declared Coronavirus ‘Imminent Threat’ as Europe Scrambles” – while the risk is called moderate, health authorities are given the authority to keep individuals in quarantine if deemed necessary.
February 11 – “The Illness Has a Name, COVID-19” – the new name makes no reference to any of the people, places or animals associated with the coronavirus. “The goal was to avoid stigma.”
February 11 – “Huge Shelters for Coronavirus Patients Pose New Risks, Experts Fear” – by this time there are 40,000 cases identified in China. The article compares immense isolation wards built in a sports stadium, an exhibition center and a building complex to warehouses built to shelter patients during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. In both cases, these shelters are seen as a possible risk to patients as well as a breeding ground for the virus, although possibly necessary.
February 11 – “Coronavirus Shock Could Push Europe Into a Downturn” – disruptions in China could spill over to the rest of the global economy
February 12 – “Coronavirus Test Kits Sent to States Are Flawed, C.D.C. Says” – despite the fact that it was guaranteed that the “kits would not go out until the C.D.C. was sure they were as accurate as possible.”
February 20 – “Why the Stock Market Isn’t Too Worried About Coronavirus” – because the Fed would bail them out.
February 24 – “Is It A Pandemic Yet?” – a column by an infectious disease expert and a documentary filmmaker. “Governments should conduct Covid-19 preparedness drills in local hospitals and expand their capacity, and the manufacturing and distribution chains for drugs and other vital products must remain open and with international cooperation. “Pandemic isn’t just a technical public health term. It also is – or should be – a rallying cry.”
February 25 – “Stocks Slide for 2nd Day as U.S. Sounds Alarm on Coronavirus” – the market is resigning itself to the fact that the impact will go well beyond China and the first quarter of 2020.
February 27 – “Coronavirus in N.Y.: Growing Anxiety as Doctors Prepare for an Epidemic” – NY State officials say they are ready, with a huge store of supplies hidden in three locations around the state, filled with surgical masks, gowns and gloves, and more extreme protective gear like N95 respirators and ventilators.
March 1 – “Coronavirus May Have Spread in U.S. for Weeks, Gene Sequencing Suggests” – I guess so.
March 2 – “Coronavirus Outbreak Will Spread in New York City, Officials Warn
March 5 – “Nurses Battling Coronavirus Beg for Protective Gear and Better Planning”
March 11 – “U.S. to Suspend Most Travel From Europe: N.B.A. Pauses After Player Gets Virus”
