Your Right to Spread Covid-19?

By Hank Silverberg

Your right to extend your fist ends just before my nose! That’s a paraphrase of an old quote often attributed to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.         

                          

(Justice Holmes,
 courtesy of Harris and Ewing )

I thought of that quote a lot this past week as I heard about people out protesting the “social distancing” policies in several states across the country. These were some of the  same folks who were running around a while back with the “Stars and Bars,”  carrying assault weapons and screaming about their “Second Amendment rights.” (Commonly mislabeled as “the Confederate flag," the “Stars and Bars” is  actually the battle flag of the Confederacy.)

It seems they somehow think that an executive order from their governors to stay home and to close businesses to prevent the spread of a deadly virus, infringes on their Constitutional rights. They are never too specific about which Right, although the First Amendment is probable. I suppose going to a movie is “the right to peacefully assemble” as much as going to church, which has been the main focus of some of the protests.  But they are missing the point. Some of them even compared these temporary restrictions to actions taken by the Nazis. That is particularly offensive to American Jews, including Colorado Governor Jarid Polis.  

The Denver Post

✔@denverpost

Gov. Polis responds to accusations that his stay-at-home order is akin to Nazism: "As a Jewish-American who lost family in the Holocaust, I'm offended by any comparison to Nazism. We act to save lives; the exact opposite of the slaughter of 6 million ..." (Video: @denverchannel)

                                           

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https://twitter.com/denverpost/status/1250549362855415808?s=20

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colorado-governor-jared-polis-emotional-press-conference-compares-coronavirus-stay-at-home-orders-to-nazism-jewish/

 Polis choked up a bit when he answered a question about the Nazi comparison.   

 "As a Jewish-American who lost family in the Holocaust, I'm offended by any comparison to Nazism. We act to save lives; the exact opposite of the slaughter of 6 million (Jews)...."

The anti-Semitic overtones of some of the demonstrators are a good indication of what type of people are driving these protests. I link to the article below with the warning that some of the pictures from a protest in Ohio may be unsuitable for children and quite disturbing to many adults. 

https://www.cleveland.com/open/2020/04/some-ohio-coronavirus-protesters-using-anti-semitism-symbolism.html

The protesters have everything backwards as most uninformed lemmings of the right-wing often do. Our government is here to protect us and “Provide for the common defense" as it says in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. That includes the defense against the Nazis in 1941, or the Coronavirus in 2020. But there were no massive protests during World War Two over travel restrictions, food shortages and gas rationing. Sure, people griped about it, but they knew it was part of the war effort and they generally obeyed the rules because they knew it saved lives. We

(Covid-19) 

are in the same situation now. More Americans have now died from the Coronavirus in the last few months than died in the three years of fighting in the Korean War. 

As for the protester’s “rights,” I also have the right not to be confronted with a potential carrier of Covid-19. I also have the right to life and the pursuit of happiness—free of a deadly disease. 

Those who protest are afraid, of course, that somehow the crisis is not real and just an excuse to take away some of our rights. Or they worry that when the virus is gone our freedom to travel or hang out on a beach will be gone. They get that opinion from Fox News and other right-wing pundits, and it’s ridiculous. We got all our rights back after World War Two and 9-11, though security issues linger from 9-11.      

The American public is not siding with this radical fringe that wants all the restrictions lifted. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out Sunday says nearly 60% of American voters are more concerned that removing the restrictions could lead to more Covid-19 deaths than those who are worried about the impact on the  economy.  


But the poll does not show President Trump's approval rating moving at all. It's still at 44% approval with 52% disapproving of the President's job performance. Only 36% trust Trump on his decisions on the Coronavirus.  You can see the full poll here: 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/sixty-percent-believe-worst-yet-come-u-s-coronavirus-pandemic-n1159106

(Shoppers social distancing six fee apart on
 a long line to get into Wegman's in Fredericksburg, VA
 on Friday. The store was limiting the number of people inside.)

The restrictions could get worse before they get better. Supermarket employees are very exposed right now because a lot of people are not following the rules inside, like six feet intervals and directional signs.  Frankly, after a few trips to several different supermarkets over the last few weeks, I can tell you they are not that easy to follow, even in stores where they limit the number of customers inside. Now, there's a possibility that curbside pickup on a pre-order may be the only way to get groceries soon in some areas. That could be hard on folks who don't have internet access or debit or charge cards to pay with. 

 https://apple.news/ALlFwdsfpTdOKU2KNHTIZ5A

So, you folks who are complaining about not being able to get a haircut or go to a sporting event or church, are not being very community minded. The more you scream about loosening the restrictions, the more risk to us all.   

The bottom line: politics will not get us out of this mess. It’s a world-wide pandemic that only SCIENCE will eradicate.

Leading scientists, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has a 60% favorable rating in the poll, and hundreds of others, have solid evidence that social distancing is helping to slow the spread of the coronavirus. That will buy some time for other very good scientists to find a vaccine to stop Covid-19  or effective medication to treat the victims.

We are, of course, in an election year, and the President may have come to the realization that he is being blamed for the government’s poor and very slow response to the outbreak. He shares a great deal, though not all of, the blame.  But Donald J. Trump would NEVER admit that. There is NO doubt in my mind that the President’s hatred of science and lack of understanding of real facts delayed his decision to act back in January when the first warning signs came from China and elsewhere about the danger of Covid-19. Add to that his apparent focus on the impact of the pandemic only on the economy while ignoring its impact on people’s health, and it’s clear to most thoughtful people that he made some very bad decisions, while some other countries got it right. (Sorry, he can not use the impeachment proceedings as an excuse, though he tries.)  

 https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/16/world/coronavirus-response-lessons-learned-intl/index.html

His main response is to attack his critics as he always has, and appeal to his base. It's the same tactic he took after the deadly Charlottesville protests in 2017.  Here’s some of Trump’s tweets this week about the latest protests.

Note those are all states with Democratic governors (66% in the poll trust their own governors), and are key states in the November election. I’m not sure about everyone else. But all this is more motivation for me to go to the polls and vote for Democrat Joe Biden. I will be there even if I have to wear a hazmat suit and crawl all the way.

Other Things:

You and many other people are probably watching and reading a lot more news than you have in decades as a result of COVID-19. You definitely are watching more TV, either broadcast or streamed, in general.  The people who keep track of TV ratings say viewership is up for all news outlets, but remarkably, it’s the broadcast network news, World News Tonight-ABC, NBC Nightly News, and The CBS Evening News which have seen their highest levels in 15 years.  

Many people have returned to news sources they trust. According to the Nielson ratings service, an average 34 million viewers a night watched the broadcast networks’ evening newscast during the last week in March. That's the highest average since 2004. Cable news benefited too, mainly because they carried those Trump follies briefings live each day—until some of them got wise and realized the briefings were mostly propaganda.     

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-03-25/tv-news-audiences-are-surging-thanks-to-coronavirus-pandemic

The Media has to be careful, though. There have been some embarrassing errors.  CBS for example, accidentally used footage from an Italian hospital rather than one in New York and implied it was New York. With many editors and producers working from home or carrying heavy loads, mistakes happen, but this one was bad. The mistake got lots of press, the apology for the mistake almost none. Then it happened a second time and I was screaming at the TV. Come, you can do better than that, CBS! 

Even with such a rare mistake, the big three have 50 years of factual credibility and are still the best and most reliable source of TV news. I always encourage young people to ignore cable and especially the internet for the important events and go back to those with the highest credibility. (You can read the big three websites if you want, or catch the podcasts of their evening news if it fits your schedule better.)

Each week I have been trying to find some form of entertainment to add to the end of my blog. This week I had trouble finding one. There's this thing called copyright that I have to be very careful about. Hopefully I will find a bit of diversion for you next week. 

If you are looking for some good reading material while social distancing at home, may I once again plug my book “The Campaign.” You can find it on Amazon.com or BN.com. The price on the paperback version has been reduced. You can get one with my signature even cheaper by emailing me at hanksilverberg@gmail.com for instructions. 

(Your suggestions and comments  are always welcome in the section below. )