With the COVID-19 pandemic responsible for more American deaths daily than 9/11 right now, what makes it feel so nebulous? What stops it from galvanizing us as a nation?
My dad got COVID end of March and passed on April 24, 2020.
Just before then, one of my best friends got deep into the world of engineering for COVID. He realized a sleep apnea machine could be hacked into an effective ventilator, and at the time ventilators were believed to be crucial to COVID care. (My sense is they have been de-emphasized in importance since then, but obviously I have not followed COVID care & science as closely since my dad’s time with it.)
He ended, through a mix of being connected in the startup and just who he is as a person, being on two different state-level committees for COVID equipment response, often with people from the military & National Guard on the calls.
My friend’s report - and this is one of those chilling things I don’t think I’ll ever forget was - that he kept expecting, as he rapidly ascended levels of governmental hierarchy that *someone* would have a plan. And in two different states, all to the way to the top, no one ever did. He loved working with people in the military - their goal oriented, low ego, high accountability approach to working together fit his gonzo engineering lifestyle. And they were equally frustrated that there just hadn’t been *any* federal instruction on what to do to help keep state facilities equipped and safe. It was just a void of leadership.
I think that void of leadership is one of the crucial pieces of the pandemic. It is hard to pin down somehow, hard to get infuriated about. It is not a scary other, it doesn’t tap into deep-rooted tribalism. It is just a lack … a big giant lack. It feels like a collective blind spot.
The VA sent me a check for $796 when my dad died. I kept it. I mostly thought, what in the flying fuck is this. I wanted you to keep my dad safe. Not a fucking check.
And actually, the VA, was amazing. They were very sweet, kept my dad in good care, kept me in the loop. I love the people of the VA. Obviously, that anger is directed at the void. The sense of — hey, I and thousands of people deserved way, way, way better than this.
In an abstract sense, I can understand what’s happening. It’s easy to believe in good and evil, heroes and villains, right and wrong. It’s hard to believe in systems that go off the rails, a moral corruption, a system that without a villain can still murder thousands of innocent people a day. It doesn’t take somehow. Superman fights crime, not a systemic pattern of apathy and incompetence.