A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

The number of confirmed cases and fatalities as of March 15, 2019. Credit: Johns Hopkins University.  Life in America in the time of Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19): An ex-beauty queen from Nevada, Katie Williams , has become the poster child for entitled, coddled, and contrarian conservatives who laugh in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak. On Saturday, Ms.Williams, who became notorious last year as the Trump-supporting Miss Nevada who was uncrowned by the Miss Nevada organization for violating its ban on political commentary on social media by contestants, bragged about going to a local Red Robin burger joint in defiance of the federal government's recommendation of social distancing to prevent COVID-19's spread. In response to a tweet by Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY 14 District) that called for young adults (in the 20-30 age bracket) to avoid gathering at restaurants and bars to help contain the coronavirus, Ms. Williams had this to say: Screenshot of the infamous ...

Screenshot of a COVID-19 tracking map based on figures collected by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSCE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) I don't have any patience for fools. Especially fools who tend to see everything in terms of "conservatives vs. liberals," specifically when those folks tend to support that most foolish of Presidents, Donald Trump. As you are no doubt aware, the world is in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan, China late last year (hence its label COVID-19) and, thanks to the smaller-world effects of jet travel, global trade, and cruise ship tourism (among other factors) has spread to the rest of good ol' Planet Earth. Because it's a novel virus, like SARS was in the early 21st Century, so far there is no vaccine or quick-remedy medicine. Unlike Stephen King's fictional "Captain Trips" superflu from his 1978 novel  The Stand, COVID-19 doesn't have a 99.9% mortality rate that wil...