It appears that the president has finally got it — a lot of people are going to die, and it will get worse before it gets better, and we are looking at “a couple of very bad weeks.” He has somewhat reluctantly used powers vested in him by the Defense Production Act, and seemed bewildered on Tuesday that states were having to vie against one another and against FEMA as well, when trying to purchase desperately needed supplies for medical personnel and to treat COVID-19 patients.
The protective gear and ventilators in the national stockpile are nearly deleted. The ventilators have not been regularly serviced, which is probably why so many of them shipped to Los Angeles were broken and had to be fixed over a weekend before they could be deployed.. FEMA is out shopping to replenish the stockpile, but that is just driving the costs up for everyone, including FEMA. What we have here is a creaky, rusty supply chain infrastructure that has not been tested in years or treated as if it is part of our critical infrastructure.
Hospitals, clinics and doctors offices still do not have the test kits. The message on staying home because you may be infected or you may be a carrier needs amplification at this level — witness Senator Rand Paul, who was tested but continued to mingle and work (and swim in the Senate pool) until his test results came back.
Today the World Heath Organization announced that we passed the 1,000,000 mark in terms of cases. Cities like New York and Los Angeles are hotbeds of infection who desperately need supplies or they will find even more medical practitioners dying from treating patients. Cold storage trucks now house the dead outside hospitals. There is no central authority distributing supplies or firmly calling the shots on states that have not yet adopted a stay at home directive.
Meanwhile, I have some good news. I have already taught two classes at two hours each online this first week of the spring quarter, and it went very well. I chose to teach asynchronously because I cannot imagine not having face to face contact with those I’m teaching. I was fortunate in this first class of 24 undergraduates that everyone left their cameras on for the whole session in each class, and they actually asked questions or made comments as well. We even managed a small group exercise that worked very well. Tonight I teach the first week of my three hour information ethics, policy & law course — it has 39 students, so it may be harder to get that Socratic feel, but I’m determined to make it work. In my face-to-face physical classes for this course since 2012, we begin by reading together the Declaration of Independence, each student taking a sentence as we go round. I can’t replicate that in a Zoom room, but I have found a video of actors reading the declaration at Constitution Hall in Philadelphia, and we’ll watch that after I talk a bit about why the Declaration, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the foundation of our democracy.
I wish each of you good health, calm resolve, and a clear understanding of why it is best for you and for everyone else that you stay at home for the month of April, at minimum.