Pandemic!

Today (Monday, March 23) Jim Justice, the Governor of West Virginia, announced that we were basically locked down. One can get groceries or medication, or go to church (although that would seem to be a bad idea) but that's it. When I last wrote, nine days ago, things didn't seem so bad. Now they are. Our state has fewer COVID-19 cases than any other state, but testing on any scale just started Friday. A friend put on Twitter that they were sick and qualified for testing. There is a new case at a nursing home up the hill from us. One must be symptomatic and in a risk group to be tested. The testing is in a drive-up tent at a local hospital. Results take a few days. I don't think they will take people without insurance.

Bradley, a young doctor who went to med school at WVU writes from New York City that the hospital where he works is overwhelmed and it gets exponentially worse every day. My cousin Olivia, a nurse in South Florida says the same thing. Italy, Spain and France are disaster areas.

I love big cities, New York in particular, but for once I'm glad we're not there. although the next few weeks in West Virginia could be just awful. We still go the grocery store. I walk or run around the neighborhood. Our income is not at risk, and we have health insurance. We are better off than people who are losing their jobs in our nearly-deserted city, people who can't pay their rent and have no health insurance. Although our television is not hooked to anything, we have internet, and a supply of records, CDs, books and movies to keep us entertained. Joe and I have been polite around each other, and give each other space around the house. We don't argue.

We still work. We've learned to use Zoom the last few days, and Joe is teaching a class while I'm writing this. Our synagogue had a phone-in service last Friday. I have a City Council meeting tomorrow night, which I will attend on Zoom. The agenda we were sent last week said nothing about the pandemic. We have to submit a budget, but our plan is in tatters as the local economy collapses. Some of us are looking for things the City of Morgantown can do to ease the way for our constituents.

The news has been saying that Democrats have held up a proposal to provide relief to the economy. That proposal bails out Wall Street, banks and large corporations. Democrats are quite right to hold out for a proposal that provides unemployment insurance, free testing for the virus, and rent relief. The U.S. Attorney General is threatening to block civil liberties. Our whole country, with its long history of democracy is teetering on the edge of a precipice, about to be pushed off by our President and his cronies.

I'm seventy now. I've survived serious asthma, reckless drivers, and a heart attack. I was born in the United States with great-grandparents who had the sense to leave Europe in the early part of the last century. I didn't go to Vietnam, and avoided contracting AIDS. I would like another ten years of reasonably good health, but if I don't get that, I don't have much to complain about. The worst thing I have to do this week is tell the cleaning woman not to come Wednesday, since we are not supposed to have visitors.

The best we can do now is be cautious, generous, call people in power and ask them to do the right thing, and live with faith that this too will pass, and hope that we will live to see it.