What We Know So Far, and What We Need To Do

The coronavirus attack is at least a month and a half old now, at least in this country. It's a good time to assess what we know so far:

• The 45 Administration didn't want to face up to the problem. It knew, back in January, that this attack was coming and was unstoppable. It did next to nothing.
• The 45 Administration doesn't know how to deal with this. It is stalling for time until something's done by someone else.
• If not for Dr. Fauci, this entire effort would be lost. It may still be. He's doing his best to keep people calm, but he doesn't have the trigger that has to be pulled on the distribution of resources,
• Vice-President Pence doesn't know what to do, either. He sounds better because he's been at the podium as a governor and member of Congress. This is beyond him, too.
• The administration has leaned so hard on the state governments because it doesn't know what to do, even though it was warned ahead of time.
• 45 is manning the podium because he's a control freak, even though it's clear that he doesn't know what to do. Whatever is being done is not being ordered by him. If it were so, he would be telling us exactly that. Six weeks now, and he hasn't ordered anybody to do anything, besides declare New York State to be a disaster area, which we already knew.
• Speaking of that: The only real leadership that's being done is by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He has at least tried to size up the situation and summarize it in terms of resources needed. That's what we need here: A realistic estimate of the size of what we have in front of us and what's needed to ward it off as much as we can. We aren't getting that from the national administration, because every day that goes by, it becomes more inadequate, not less.
• 45 is manning the podium so that when there is an answer to this problem, he will appear to be the one who solved it--even though it's now clear that he can't.
• Remember that 45 has said, "I don't take any responsibility." He said that, and it is up to us to be sure that it comes back to get him. When things are quite obviously out of control, remember who he blames. It will be false. It will be a lie.
• Rely on Axios to give you the best updates. They are saying that tens of thousands, if not a million, will die from coronavirus. The number of dead it reports Saturday are 244. That is a pinprick. Yes: You need to stay inside. Yes: You need to be extremely careful. Ignore all attempts to minimize this.
• We are not remotely close to being overrun by this virus. By Easter, it will happen. Then it will be important to tune into these conferences, because it will be obvious then that this administration is beyond help and must be replaced immediately. It will make excuses for itself. They, too, will be inadequate. But it will be important, especially then, that you do not panic.
• If you want to know exactly what we need, go to the website Medium and click on "The Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance," by Tomas Pueyo (h/t to my friend, Dennis Boom, for lighting me up to that). That will tell you. We need to be tough about this for three months. Then we can adjust better. BUT NOT UNTIL THEN.
• Sophisticated, leading questions like the one Peter Alexander asked 45 are still quite beyond him. If you are not a member of Fox News, he is incapable of seeing anything but the likelihood of a threat implied by any question that doesn't, according to him, make him look terrific.
• The latest press conference had little additional to say beyond what's already been reported. Generalizations are all 45 can come up with because this situation is still beyond him.
• The recession/depression that this will cause will be beyond anything anyone under 75 has seen. Some businesses will simply be unable to recover because people's tastes will change. When we are finished with this, the country will not look nearly the same. We have ridden a tremendous bubble of 75 years, but it has broken.
• There is no national leadership here. Absolutely none. Leadership would have marshaled resources and been far beyond what this band of incompetents have done so far. Leadership would not have lied about getting resources where they were needed. Leadership would not have lied about hospital ships getting to their destinations quickly.
• We will need to be good to each other in the stores. As this epidemic gets closer and the results become clearer and scarier, people will be tempted to hoard all the more. We cannot let our tempers get in the way. We must support each other while we get what we need for ourselves.
• Exhortations like the ones that 45 and Secretary of Housing and Human Services Ben Carson made at the press conference today--we are all in this together, for example, no matter what party you belong to--are good and nice and needed, but not without specific directives, not without a path. Without that, they mean next to nothing. They do not inspire.
• Yes, we will get through this--those of us who are left. But how many thousands more need to die because this administration is still playing catch-up eight weeks after it was warned?

We are about to enter a time that will test all of us. We must do our best to take care of each other. The federal government may, or may not, catch up. It's the lack of knowledge that will doom us if we let it. The best advice is what has already been given informally: Assume you have the disease so you don't give it to someone. If we all think that, we'll have the best chance of surviving. Good luck to all. Do what makes sense. And keep your hands clean.

Be well. Be careful. With luck, I'll see you down the road.

Mister Mark