Playing softball

I’m immunocompromised. It’s a fancy way of saying that my immune system is weak. There are 1.2 million others in the U.S. like me. Many of them were born that way, or they contracted AIDS, cancer, or diabetes. Not me. I chose to take drugs that would cause the condition. It’s not because I’m a self-destructive madman. I had no choice. It was 2017, and I had just received heart and kidney transplants. I rejoiced that I would have more birthdays, but I was aware of a nasty downside: my immune system would never accept the new organs; it would work ceaselessly to reject them. If I wanted to keep the organs, the only known solution was to make my immune system less efficient. And so the drugs.

Our current Covid vaccines all do basically the same thing. They cause the immune system to make Covid antibodies, which keep the virus from taking hold. But if you have a compromised immune system, it will make an insufficient number of Covid antibodies, and possibly none at all. Everyone with a transplanted organ is stuck with this Catch-22.

When the vaccines became available last January, medical experts suspected that transplant patients might get little or no benefit from them. In short order, that was confirmed. When vaccinated transplant patients were exposed to Covid, they got sick. For me and others with this problem, the life patterns of 2020 returned — wear a mask outdoors, shun crowds, no hugs or handshakes, keep others at a distance.

Last May, I scheduled a Zoom session with my transplant doctor in San Francisco. I told him I wanted a test for the presence of vaccine-induced antibodies. He tried his best to discourage me and advised that I be patient, that the problem was being studied. He didn’t tell me, as I learned later, that his affiliated lab wouldn’t perform the test, that the FDA had asked all labs not to perform the test, that the FDA didn’t sanction booster shots for the immunocompromised. My doctor and the FDA were playing softball with Covid.

Just lately, the FDA announced its support for a booster shot. What’s notable about this is what they didn’t announce. They said nothing about establishing a regimen of boosting, testing, boosting, testing, etc. Without such a program, it’s certain that a single booster shot will not fully succeed where the initial shots failed. Regular boosters will be needed as tests dictate. It may even be that convalescent plasma therapy, the use of blood from people who’ve recovered from Covid, would work better than boosters. The FDA has been mum on that possibility.

All this has been frustrating for us 1.2 million, but our cries for help are no longer the most urgent on the Covid scene. When the Delta variant began its surge in the U.S. this summer, the landscape changed for everyone. People with healthy immune systems were suddenly in peril. The fully vaccinated were at risk for a nonlethal case of Covid; the unvaccinated gambled with hospitalization and death. The need for everyone to get vaccinated became alarmingly clear. Not only were the unvaccinated a threat to each other, they were a conduit for sickening people who had been sensible. Worse yet, they were unwittingly volunteering to act like agar in a Petri dish, in which newer and deadlier mutations might grow. Worst of all, they were spreading the disease to children under 12, a group that had been little affected by earlier variants. As I understand the law, these ignorant adults may have committed third-degree murder. I like the definition of this felony on Minnesota’s law books: The unintentional killing of another through an eminently dangerous act [e.g., mingling with other unvaccinated people] committed with a depraved mind and without regard for human life. Yes, that is my implication: unvaccinated adults are depraved.

On his first full day in office, Biden took a strong stand against Covid. He announced a “full-scale wartime effort” to fight it. I was thankful for his belligerence. It was a recognition that we had been invaded and were in a state of war. Surely, this was the most sensible stance to take.

For several months, Biden was as good as his word. The manufacture and distribution of Covid vaccines ramped up, and on April 1, the daily vaccination rate had risen to 4.5 million doses per day. This, however, was the peak, and the vaccination rate declined rapidly to half a million per day by early July. Since then, the fear wrought by the Delta variant has driven the rate back up to a million per day, but my sense is that we’re now up against the haredcore anti-vaxxers. There are over 75 million of them, and they’re indifferent to the harm they’re doing. Further progress is going to be a long, hard slog.

Is the Biden administration still at war with Covid? I look for signs of it but see none. What I’ve seen from Biden is pathetic pleading. “Please, please, please get vaccinated!” Bravo, Mr. President. Maybe you can pray on it, if you haven’t already.

After six months in office, Biden asked the Pentagon to develop a plan to vaccinate everyone in the armed forces. Neither bold nor decisive. And two days later, with the vaccination rate plummeting, Rochelle Walensky, Biden’s CDC Director, declared, “There will be no nationwide mandate for Americans to get a COVID-19 vaccine.” An astonishing thing to say to a nation “at war.” She went on to explain that whenever she uses the word “mandate,” she is thinking of “mandates by private institutions and portions of the federal government.” I couldn’t have been more disgusted. At this dire time, the federal government was also playing softball. In fact, slow pitch softball!

For years the Republican Party has put political calculation above all else. They never upset their constituency, regardless of the harmful consequences. Now we see the center of the Democratic Party displaying the same lack of principle: never tell unionized voters or blue-collar workers that they can be fined or fired if they lack proof of vaccination. They might turn on you. They might realign with the yahoos who squawk about their freedom being trampled.

If Biden wants to put some credibility behind his pose of political courage, he should speak to the nation about anarchy and freedom. Anarchy is lawlessness; there is no recognized political authority. You can do whatever you choose. You want to set fires? OK. You want to turn in front of oncoming traffic. Fine. You want poison a water supply? Go for it. You want to spread disease? … Freedom is the privilege to do what you want, provided you do no harm to other people. What constitutes harm is determined by consensus and formalized into laws, which are enforced by a democratic government. Biden should conclude by asserting that his administration will always support the growth of freedom but will never tolerate anarchy.

Interview with a gadfly

It’s been a long time since this blog hosted an exclusive interview. The Covid pandemic probably has had a lot to do with that, as it has a knack for shutting things down. But now interviews are back, and coincidentally enough, the topic of this one is the Covid pandemic. The interviewee is a highly placed official in the CDC who insists on concealing his identity. His acceptance letter was signed “M. A. Gadfly,” a whimsical pseudonym.

We met at the offices of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. I was led to a small conference room and was shuffling through my notes when a head peered into the room. “Hi, Ken?” I nodded and stood. “I’m Murray,” said the head.

He was wearing pale blue jeans and a dark blue, silk shirt with a glorious burnt orange plumeria decorating the front. My preconceptions of him were shattered.

Mr. Gadfly, hi. I’m delighted you agreed to this interview. The Scratching Post is in your debt for giving heft to our modest journalistic efforts.

Please, Ken, it’s Murray, and the debt is mine. I’ve been stoppered up for more than a year, watching the criminal ignorance of the Trump Administration and lately the burlesque posturing of the Biden Administration. I’m desperate for an outlet, somewhere to howl and rant. You, Ken, are my outlet. (His eyes twinkled.)

Murray, I think anyone with their head on straight has been aggrieved by the tragic void that was Trump Covid policy. But I’ve yet to hear anyone from the medical community go after Biden. Am I correct that you’re prepared to take some shots at him?

You are. Both administrations can be faulted. My criticisms of each differ in kind and degree. Biden’s errors mostly register as gaffes, bobbles, and thoughtless knee-jerks. Trump’s errors were monstrous cases of ignorance, apathy, and despotic arm-twisting. If you don’t mind, I’d like to focus on Biden. His miscues haven’t had much exposure. Trump’s disasters are well documented and, frankly, I’m just done with him.

Fine, Murray. Are your criticisms of Biden politically based, medically based, or both?

Both. Let me start with the medical component. According to current stats, 35% of Americans have been “fully vaccinated” against Covid. How should we interpret that phrase? I can think of only one interpretation: you can’t get Covid, no way, no how. If it were nevertheless possible, what on earth would the phrase “fully vaccinated” mean? “Mostly protected, maybe”? That would be absurd and a repudiation of medical science. It’s like the old saying about being pregnant — you are or you aren’t. There’s no in-between.

That doesn’t mean the vaccine’s protection is forever or that the virus can’t mutate into a form beyond the vaccine’s ability to contain it. There are platoons of immunologists with an eye on these matters, and I’m sure they’ll sing out if the status quo begins to fade. That time may come eventually, but it makes no sense to curtail human activity and wait for it.

So what are you saying? Biden should declare victory, like Trump wanted to do at Easter last year?

Well, pretty much, yes. Biden should call in his medical experts and say, “I want us to jump in the water with both feet. That means no more insistence on wearing a mask, anywhere. No more avoiding crowds, vaccinated or not. We can all resume our 2019 lifestyles without qualification. Now, if you disagree with me, you have 3 weeks to talk me out of it. And you’d better have a damn good argument. Otherwise, I’ll declare victory in 3 weeks and a day.”

My God, Murray! Surely, the vaccines will fail in some people. And the unvaccinated, with a collapse in social distancing, will be much more likely to get Covid from each other and from the vaccinated!

Ken, that reaction is hysterical. First, of all the people infected by Covid, about 0.00001 percent had been vaccinated. The odds of a bullet-proof vest not stopping a bullet aren’t nearly that good. Second, it’s hard to imagine the unvaccinated becoming more irresponsible than they are now. If anything, the knowledge that all the rails are down should encourage some to get vaccinated. Third, there is a growing body of evidence that the vaccinated do not transmit the disease. The optimism of May, 2020 was as incredible as the optimism of May, 2021 is credible, and for one simple reason — we now have vaccines. They flip everything.

What about the political ramifications of “declaring victory”? Won’t both parties call Biden a flip-flopper?

Ah, I planned to get to that. The answer to that is the same as to much else in politics. It depends on how you spin it.

I have a queasy feeling that you’re going to spin spinning.

Indeed I am. Why must spinning always be pejorative? It doesn’t necessarily mean lying or distracting. It can also mean communicating more effectively by using clarifying rhetorical devices. I think Socrates was a spinner, in the best sense. If Biden likes my advice, he only needs to point out that a sensible person changes his thinking when the facts change: we didn’t have a vaccine then and now we do. Instead, Biden and his spokespeople have for months played the “they said black so we say white” game.

But won’t your plan in Biden’s mouth strike many progressives as a betrayal?

Some, for sure. But many more conservatives will have a positive reaction. “So, Joe now supports real freedom. I can go where I please, mingle as I please, live as I please. Free again!” They’re simpletons, but they’ll be simpletons in Joe’s camp. Declaring victory would actually be an act of political healing …. How’s that for spinning?

You’ve convinced me, Murray, at least for the next 15 minutes, or until the Murray Effect wears off.

C’mon, Ken, cut me some slack. Maybe it’ll get stronger.

Prelude to a disaster

This year has been a tale of two climaxes: one in the virulence of the Covid virus, the other in the seditious antics of Donald J. Trump. Both have been ruinous — Covid to physical wellbeing, Trump to national wellbeing. The two are, of course, intertwined. Trump’s blustery and idiotic style of governing is music to the ears of his minions, who are charmed by bluster and idiocy. Their gullibility gave the virus its greatest impetus as they became its most pitiful victims.

As we know, Trump’s catalog is long, through every trespass ranging. Mishandling the pandemic came as an encore to the his impeachment trial in early 2020, which sadly offered no more than a highlight reel of his misdeeds. When he was renominated last summer, many, including me, felt sure he was going to top himself in the fall. He has not disappointed.

He spoke against voting by mail, damning it as a vehicle of voter fraud. He denigrated the Postal Service, while his Postmaster General took steps to hamstring mail processing. His campaign went to court to challenge the right of states to mail ballots to their registered voters. His Senate lackeys blocked a Covid relief bill that would have given the Postal Service cash support to properly handle the influx of mail.

As Election Day came and went, millions of mailed votes had not yet been counted. As expected, Trump was ahead in most of the battleground states, but it was clear the tide would turn the next day. Yet Trump didn’t wait for the swing to play out. He announced that he had won because his lead was plainly insurmountable. In effect, he set the predicate that only massive acts of voter fraud could stand between him and victory.

Between that day and the present, Trump’s legal team has filed more than 50 cases that alleged voter fraud. All were denied, dismissed, settled, or withdrawn, without any evidence of fraud. The U.S. Supreme Court twice rejected petitions about the voting in Pennsylvania. One sought to throw out 2.6 million mailed ballots on procedural grounds; the other, to allow the state’s General Assembly to pick new electors. Again, neither petition was accompanied by credible evidence of fraud.

In our nation’s history, has litigation ever been so prolonged and frivolous? Have plaintiffs ever pursued a more humiliating path? No and no. We are left to ask, what could possibly have prompted such a deranged abuse of our legal system? Perhaps it all has to do with an epic case of presidential petulance, but I’m inclined to think otherwise. I believe the thinking in the White House went something like this…. Let’s object to the election results on all the grounds we can imagine and do so in dozens of venues. We might lose every case but in the final analysis, we win. Each court loss will reveal anew the depth of the conspiracy against the president’s re-election and amplify the resentment of our base. Relentless tweeting and some well-timed rallies will ensure it. Our folks will be on the edge of insurrection by the time we get to January. Protesting in the streets against “a radical takeover of America” is a given. Next, there is confrontation and, inevitably, a spark of violence. The confrontation and violence spread. People are frightened. The president then has a plausible pretext for declaring martial law.

I’m certain this scenario has been put before Trump. I’m certain it appeals to him. What’s unclear is whether he can imagine the catastrophe he would bring down upon himself. Surely a different counselor has mentioned that the rage in Red America can also be used to perpetuate his glory and enhance his wealth. That too would appeal to him. We’ll know his decision in January.

We’re #1!

I’m not ready to predict a defeat for Trump this fall. True, the polls are looking grim for him, but the horror of the 2016 election is still pinballing around in my head and stoking my distrust of the electorate. So I’ll offer something cautious: Trump’s bottom number will be 40%. He will win at least 40% of the popular vote and 40% of the states. But he may do better — possibly much better.

If you think my assessment is reasonably accurate, the last thing you want to do is throw a party. 40% of the popular vote is what respectable losers get. Adlai Stevenson, a man of many virtues, got 42% in his 1956 rematch with Eisenhower. George McGovern, one of the most honorable men to run, got 37.5% against Nixon. Jimmy Carter, a saint among men, got 41% in 1980, the year he ran against Reagan. Now I ask, what losing percentage should a certifiable scoundrel get?

I won’t beleaguer you by making the full case that Trump is certifiable. If you need to recall his iniquities, you can look at this post, where I summarized them just before the House Democrats started their impeachment hearings. Or you can consider this graphic:

Or, if you want to confine your attention to his 2020 crimes, this list will do:

• He abandoned his responsibility to mount a national response to the COVID-19 virus, making the U.S. the epicenter of the virus, contributing to 176,000 deaths (so far), and bringing economic misery to all but the rich. To compound his ineptitude, he gave ignorant medical advice at public briefings and made light of wearing face masks in gatherings.
  
  
• Last June, he used an ad hoc collection of military and quasi-military muscle to disperse peaceful protesters in Washington, D.C., just to make a show of entering the streets and posing at a church with a Bible in hand. In Portland, OR, he used unidentified members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to manhandle protesters and whisk them away in unmarked cars. In effect, Trump deployed an extra-legal goon squad to do his bidding, a tactic reminiscent of NAZI Germany.
  
  
• When it became clear that the pandemic would threaten a large turnout in November, universal mail-in balloting became an attractive idea. Trump recognized that his chances for survival would improve if mailings were suppressed, so he invented the lie that a mail-in election would be the most fraudulent in history. His Postmaster General got the message and shut down sorting machines, eliminated overtime, removed drop boxes, and claimed that severe cost-cutting measures were necessary. The Postal Service asked for more money to handle the anticipated deluge of mailed ballots, but Trump rebuffed them. “If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting; they just can’t have it.”
  
  
• In an interview with Sean Hannity, Trump said he’s considering sending law enforcement officers to polling places to monitor voters and prevent fraud. “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody and attorney generals (sic).” Such action is expressly forbidden in Section 592 of Title 18 of the US Code, but a cringing Republican Senate has put him above the law.
  
  
• Trump commuted Roger Stone’s sentence, and his Attorney General (not our Attorney General) maneuvered to abrogated Michael Flynn’s conviction. We can expect all of Trump’s convicted cronies to be let off by one means or another. Rather than “drain the swamp,” Trump has conjured up a criminal syndicate that will likely evade justice.

I think I’ve made the case that Trump is indeed a certifiable scoundrel. So how have such people fared in past presidential elections? That’s hard to answer because there has never been a person like Trump in American politics. Let’s nevertheless look at a few people of poor character and see how they fared on the presidential ballot. In 1948, for example, Strom Thurmond, a Dixiecrat candidate and supporter of racial segregation, got 2.4% of the vote. In 1968, George Wallace, another staunch segregationist, got less than 14% of the vote. In 1976, Gus Hall, the general secretary of the American Communist Party and advocate of the violent overthrow of the government, took in less than 1% of the vote. Of these villains, Wallace scored best, and I submit that he was a far better man than Trump. Though openly a racist, he had some scruples. Trump is a closet racist with no scruples.

All the foregoing examples not only led splinter parties, they were morally among the dregs of American splinter candidates. In 2016, something unprecedented happened. A major political party actually nominated a dreg! And he won! What can explain such an anomaly? The answer is hard to cop to. A large minority of Americans are bone stupid. Moreover, no other industrialized nation is more stupid. We’re #1! That conclusion is consistent with other things we know about ourselves. We lead the world in COVID-19 cases and deaths. We lead the world in gun ownership and mass murders. We lead the world in concocting conspiratorial nonsense. We are infested with dumbasses!

If Biden wins in November, the dumbass infestation will not suddenly disappear. We are stuck with it for unknowable decades. It’s no different than having a chronic illness. And it’s a wasting illness. We may find a vaccine that cures us of COVID-19, but what can we do to cure ourselves of stupidity?

Let a cartoon be your guide

A new school year will begin soon. Germany, France, and Denmark will resume in-person education. Switzerland is likely to do the same. Trump is urging our schools to join in and threatening economic sanctions if they don’t.

Meanwhile, our school districts and teachers unions deliberate. Some have already declared their positions. In my neck of the woods, the San Jose Teachers Association announced that its members will not return to in-person teaching when schools open. They choose to continue with online classes. The teachers in Los Angeles say the same. New York City, home to the nation’s largest school district, will ask students to be in classrooms no more than three days a week. Class sizes will be cut to a dozen people, and that includes teachers and aides! I assume that the students will have online class time as well. This plan has come to be known as the “hybrid model.” Many school districts will adopt a form of it, with differences in class sizes, attendance days, class time, and the number of classes offered. In Portland, Oregon, they plan devoting Wednesdays to cleaning their schools.

We can be sure of three things. First, there will be dozens of different school district plans in America alone, and perhaps more than a hundred across the world. Second, no one knows at this date what the best plan is, not even people in the medical community. When it comes to school attendance and health risks, there is no definitive data. Everyone is guessing. There are both thoughtful guesses and stupid guesses. Third, we are about to embark on the biggest uncontrolled public health experiment of all time. There’s no precedent for this. The whole world will become an open lab, and some of the guesses will have dire consequences. We can’t stop this from happening. The best we can do is to take good notes.

I have no trouble deciding what plan I’d go with. I use this simple rule of thumb: If I’m forced to choose and must do so in a state of ignorance, I choose the option with the least risk. I make way for the intrepid fools who are drawn to risk like a moth to a flame.

My attitude is well expressed in this old cartoon:

So I support what the teachers in San Jose, Los Angeles, and many other cities plan to do. I differ with them in just one respect. I would not rely on public health authorities — a roll of the dice — to sound the all clear. Rather, I’d trust only the trained observers who will document this experiment and report evidence-based conclusions. It will be late this year or in early 2021 before we can stake a claim to knowledge.

Viral thoughts

As a dutiful citizen, and as a fearful elder, I am “sheltering in place.” I’m also practicing “social distancing,” but in truth, I’ve done so all my life. Nothing unnatural to it.

So all in all, I’m managing fairly well. So far, the chief irritant in this new normal has been the news media, damn their monotonous souls.

I appreciate their role in reporting federal, state, and local policy declarations, and in keeping me apprised of the disease’s progress. If only they would leave it there. I don’t enjoy hearing a multitude of medical opinions and being left to sort out which conjectures are the most plausible. Nor do I enjoy hearing another tier of experts sorting out the conjectures for me. If the networks wanted to do the hunkered-down millions a favor, they’d broadcast classic movies and classic TV for most of the day.

At this point in the news pandemic — and you thought we just had the one — I’ve managed to filter out some nuggets that may be worth sharing with you:

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The buffoon at the helm of our nation continues to lie, mislead, plead his blamelessness, and toss off insults. As early as January, the intelligence community began warning of the threat posed by a new  coronavirus in China. Trump would hear none of it. In early February, when the World Health Organization offered to to supply us with test kits, we declined. We are a proud people with a proud president. We would make our own kits (just not very soon). And anyway, it would all blow over before we knew it. When asked who gave the order to turn down WHO’s offer, Trump said he didn’t know the answer to that “nasty question,” but it certainly wasn’t him.

While Trump temporized, the public began a hoarding frenzy that hasn’t ended yet. It failed to self-ration, which doesn’t bode well for self-sheltering. I can’t help thinking that this is the same collective id that put Trump in office in the first place.

The “Hoover seat.” This is the seat that Trump now occupies. It’s where any president sits who presides over a catastrophe. Trump presides over two, the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapsing economy. The chances of being re-elected when you sit in the Hoover seat are slim to none. Biden will win easily in November, absent a tantrum from the Sanders diehards.

Comparisons to the flu. Worldwide, the flu kills hundreds of thousands every year. In the U.S., it’s tens of thousands. Is COVID-19 as serious a threat? The flu is seasonal and recedes in warm weather. Our bodies recognize its chemistry. We have a small immunity to it and a new, partially effective vaccine every year. COVID-19 hasn’t been around long enough to show a pattern of occurrence. It mutated last year and jumped from animals to humans. Our bodies do not recognize its chemistry. A vaccine for it, we’re told, is at least a year away. So far, we have too little data to make an informed comparison. We are ignorant. It never makes sense to panic, and panicking in a state of ignorance is irrationality on stilts. Yet we see panic wherever food and household staples are sold.

Living under a cloud. Since January 20, 2017, many Americans have been living in a mild state of depression, desperate for the time when the federal government will change. It’s like seasonal affective disorder, but without seasonal relief. Since December, 2019, the entire world has been depressed by COVID-19. So globally, cheerfulness is in short supply, and America is in a double funk. I think of what the mindset must have been during the Great Depression and World War II. In the opinion of many, that was the time of the Greatest Generation. I’m hopeful that the young, strong, and determined of today will also rise to the occasion.

Kudos to Sanders and Yang. If you watched the Biden-Sanders debate, you saw Biden insist that Medicare for All was irrelevant to the COVID-19 pandemic. To him, the right response to the crisis was a one-time legislative package. A sweeping change to our system of health care wasn’t necessary. But Sanders knew better. If Medicare for All had already been in place, we would have had a much more coordinated government response, a much more equitable program of testing and treatment, and far more peace of mind about treatment costs. Medicare for All isn’t an ad hoc proposal. It’s for this year and for every year afterwards. Biden (deliberately?) missed the point.

Many senators, Republicans included, are calling for one or two payments of $1,000 to every American family to help them pay for basic needs. The money would have the additional benefit of propping up consumer demand. Perhaps they don’t realize that millions of Americans need this support irrespective of a public health emergency. Andrew Yang realizes it. During his presidential campaign, he proposed sending $1,000 to every American adult every month. If his plan had been in effect this winter, it would have served as an economic cushion now and would help to buffer future shocks. Like Sanders, Yang has a broader view of meeting people’s needs.

Age-biased action plans. Local government action plans treat the young, middle-aged, and old pretty much equally. This is wrong. Elderly people are much more at risk, and special provisions need to be made for them. All businesses that provide essential services should announce hours that are reserved for the elderly. These times should be posted on a website managed by local government, not scattered across a dozen sites. The website should post a central telephone number where elders can find help in doing essential tasks. A corps of COVID volunteers should be organized in every community. Corps members should knock on doors and take the names of elders who need someone to shop for them or run small errands. All volunteers should, of course, be tested and cleared for service.

The future. When the shadow of this pandemic finally moves on, the fear it engendered will have left a mark. National health organizations will be forced to improve their communications channels. Cutting their budgets and staffs will be unthinkable. Emergency response plans will be better defined and more quickly put to work. We may even look forward to improved international relations. It should be clearer than ever how interdependent we all are.

The idea of the privileged getting special treatment during a crisis or profiting from one will be more repugnant than ever. Negative sentiment against exploitation will grow. Talk of political and economic reforms were part of the national dialogue before this crisis. The advocacy for reform is certain to intensify. 

A few years before my retirement, I was allowed to work from home three days a week. My manager refused to give me a raise during this time, saying, “Look at the rare privilege you’ve been given. And you want more money, too!” That was in 2007, and that attitude has continued until this year. Now millions are working from home of necessity. They have the luxury of avoiding long commutes. Time once spent in traffic or on trains can be used productively, and the working day can be broken into convenient intervals. The working public has some relief from the rat race and won’t permit it to get as ratty again.

If the pandemic precludes large gatherings into the summer, school districts will be forced to make plans for virtual classrooms. This will bring on nothing less than an education revolution. What it means to be a teacher and a student will be redefined. This would have happened without the pandemic but at an evolutionary pace. Now we must face the possibility of having it thrust upon us.

Perhaps the most significant feature of the pandemic is its role as an accelerator. As I’ve written, it will hasten changes in international affairs, politics, the way we work, and the way we learn. But most profoundly, it will speed up changes in medicine. Today, at least twenty COVID-19 vaccines are in development in a global race to find a cure. It reminds me of the space race in the 1960s. I have no doubt that a cure will be found, possibly within this year. And it seems just as likely that this synergy will produce dozens of advances in biomedicine.