I have just finished reading—back-to-back—two articles on the New Yorker website. The first is a report from Munich, Germany on the steps taken by the authorities to fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The second is a chronicle of an automobile trip from California to New York during the virus crisis in the United States. I recommend reading both pieces, especially back-to back.
The first article, “How Munich Turned Its Coronavirus Outbreak Into a Scientific Study” by Elisabeth Zerofsky,* details how scientists and medical professionals, having received a million euros from the government implemented a wide-spread testing and tracing program. Scientists established a protocol for home visits:
careful precautions [were] taken to establish public trust: after the initial knock, the team members explained who they were and what they would be doing. Residents don’t have to immediately agree to participate, as a separate team would return to take the first blood samples. The study also attracted a great deal of press attention, so residents often already knew about it.
The program was welcomed. Someone exclaimed, “I was hoping so much that you guys would come to my door!”
*
On June 23, Michael Specter, a scientist, professor, and writer, hustled his dog into his car for his biannual trip back to the east coast from Palo Alto, California. He recorded his journey in an article entitled “Driving Cross-Country: A Coronavirus Diary.”**
Considering the great number of virus-deniers, non-maskwearers, and crowds he encountered, it would have been astonishing if Specter would have been able to report that people across the country were welcoming PPE-clad testers into their homes. Even Specter’s mask was off-putting to people: “Oh, honey . . .You don’t have to wear that thing in here. It’s a bit much, don’t you think?” said a motel clerk to Specter, who, besides masks and gloves, had brought along on his journey “enough hand sanitizer to disinfect the nation.”
In Las Vegas, Specter “counted a hundred and thirty-seven people during my thirty-minute stroll, and only seventeen wore masks.” Not a very effective way to confront the pandemic. “[W]e were not born with masks on,” a woman accurately and stupidly informed him.
In Utah, Specter read in the newspaper that the state epidemiologist was quoted as saying,
For three straight weeks now, our cases have been increasing at a rate that isn’t sustainable . . . .We are at risk for overwhelming our hospital capacity.
And how did the politicians hop to it to see that the populace would be safe?
Victor Iverson, the Washington County commissioner and a candidate for lieutenant governor at the time, declared that he “will never wear a mask.” He had had it with the pandemic talk. “I think it’s time to get back to normal,” he said. “Our citizens want to be free. And we’re done.”
Things did get better; Specter notes that as he drove east, “rules, in general, are stricter and compliance seemingly better.” But, overall, a very discouraging journey.
As part of his summing up, he says,
I don’t know what I expected from this trip, but I was surprised at how little attention people seemed to pay to the virus. I once wrote a book called “Denialism,” but I could never have imagined that so many people could be so committed to ignoring reality.
*
Bavaria is historically a conservative German state. But its efforts to use scientific and medical knowledge to prevent the spread of COVID-19 proves that to be politically conservative does not mean you have to be a flaming loonie.
Then again, there’s yesterday’s headline:
Trump administration seeking to block funding for CDC, contact tracing and testing in new relief bill: report***
*
Americans like to proclaim that they are living in the greatest country in the world. Our deluded northern neighbors, the Canadians, with their much lower per-capita coronavirus death toll and their free health care system, think that they are. Their dollar coin is called the “loonie.”
You don’t have to flip one to determine who’s right.
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