A NATION IN CRISIS
This Is Why The Virus Is Winning
Sealed in a Petri dish in the sky, it becomes apparent that we do not have the will to come together and fight a common enemy.
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“I’m particularly worried about air travel.”
- Dr. David Rubin
The first reports of the new mysterious illness in China were treated a lot like how Floridians react when a new tropical depression forms in the Atlantic. There were some who saw the news and immediately started bracing themselves for a coming storm, but most of us saw the danger too far away to be considered impending. We paid little notice and we certainly did not make any preparations.
As the sea started to stir and storm clouds moved closer to the horizon, most of us still did not move into a state of heightened alert. After all, most hurricanes change course before hitting us directly. The first cases of COVID-19 had already landed on American soil but we went on with our lives as normal. Right before the California primary in March, my family attended a Bernie Sanders rally with thousands of other people at the Los Angeles Convention Center. We doused our daughters’ hands in sanitizer at frequent intervals but had no second thoughts about being in such a large crowd. Days later I stood in line for hours to vote with no social distancing being practiced and face masks not yet part of the vernacular.
Looking back, I am not quite sure what event caused the shift, but suddenly complacency turned to panic. Without warning, Costco was rationing rice and toilet paper. Empty spaces marked the spot where the pallets of Cup of Noodles used to be stored. By the next weekend, our local supermarket looked like it had conducted a going-out-of-business sale; the shelves were completely bare with the exception of a few dented cans. At work, we were forced to start wearing the same mask for an entire shift as supplies dwindled. The storm was on our shores and panicked buyers had replaced careful planning with chaotic desperation.
