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SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Possibly the most important video of your life
By
Published: Apr 02, 2020
Category:
Pandemic: Dispatches and Essentials
“Patient Zero,” in general usage, refers to the first case of a catastrophic trend.
I give it a more personal meaning: the first person in my circle to be afflicted. Because, ultimately, the world shrinks to that. I care for John Prine. I have an acute interest in Chris Cuomo’s “haunted” night: shivering, hallucinating, beaten “like a piñata.” I have to turn away from the screen when I read the 10th story of a nurse or doctor who died in the line of fire.
My Lifeboat is intact. So far.
Despite that incredible good fortune, my steadiness cratered yesterday afternoon, as the bad news rolled in, wave after wave.
First: Pentagon Seeking 100,000 Body Bags for Civilians in Crisis.
Then: Dr. Fauci needs a security upgrade.
Then: Andrew Cuomo: “Really, the only hope for a state at this point is the federal government’s capacity to deliver.”
And then, just for icing: Obamacare Markets Will Not Reopen, Trump Decides.
These revelations triggered a sense of doom. I felt the verdict was in: we’re fucked. My daughter’s friends who are sleeping until 3 PM? They’re missing nothing. My friends who have stopped looking at the news? They’re the smart ones.
Then I remembered Colonel Harold Moore, who wrote “We Were Soldiers Once… and Young: la Drang, The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam.” In four days of fighting — with the enemy sometimes as close as 75 feet from the American line — 234 Americans died. “I think every one of us thought we were going to die at that place except Hal Moore,” says Joe Galloway, the United Press reporter who became co-author of Moore’s book. “He was certain we were going to win that fight and he was right.”
And I recalled a tiny, but meaningful detail: Before the battle started, Joe Galloway was watching Moore’s soldiers shave as he boiled water for coffee one morning. Moore passed by. “We all shave in my outfit — reporters included,” he snapped. Galloway immediately repurposed his coffee water for shaving. And I promptly Fastastiked every surface, took a walk with my daughter, and, between snark attacks, gamed out a plausible future.
I’ve written often about and for leaders, an experience that has warned me off heroes. Hal Moore could survive the most critical test. In this video, he lays out the mindset required for effective leadership. And given the tragedy being enacted in Washington, that means y-o-u. If you watch nothing else today, watch this. You might also consider reading Moore’s book.
NEED TO KNOW: “THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE SHEDDING THE VIRUS WHO DON’T KNOW THAT THEY’RE INFECTED.”
From the Times:
As many as 25 percent of people infected with the new coronavirus may not show symptoms, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns.
A team in Hong Kong suggests that from 20 to 40 percent of transmissions in China occurred before symptoms appeared.
“I think increasing evidence suggests the virus is spread not just through droplets but through aerosols,” Dr. Chowell said. “It would make a lot of sense to encourage at the very least face mask use in enclosed spaces including supermarkets.”
Several studies have shown now that people infected with the new coronavirus are most contagious about one to three days before they begin to show symptoms.
Because people may be passing the virus on to others even when they feel fine, asking only unwell people to stay home is unlikely to be enough. This is why many experts, going against recommendations by the C.D.C. and the World Health Organization, are now urging everyone to wear masks — to prevent those who are unaware they have the virus from spreading it.
Like influenza, some experts now say, this virus appears to spread both through large droplets and droplets smaller than five micrometers — termed aerosols — containing the virus that infected people might release especially while coughing, but also while merely exhaling. They emphasized that the level of virus in both types of particles is low, so simply jogging or walking by an infected person does not put people at risk.
CHRISTOPHER HIRSHEIMER’S SCAMBLED EGGS
Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton are the Canal House team. They are smart about food and a lot more. Their most recent cookbook is just what they say: Cook Something: Recipes to Rely On. Melissa and Christopher write a daily newsletter: what they’re cooking for lunch that day. It’s helpful. And charming. (To subscribe, click here.) Yesterday, Christopher served terrific scrambled eggs. I know. I made them.
CH: I love to make scrambled eggs. Well, I could begin at the beginning and say I love eggs. For both of us it is our go-to meal. They are simple, yet very particular things to cook. My preference is to crack three eggs into a bowl then add a generous splash of heavy cream. Meanwhile I melt a nice knob of salted Irish butter in a nonstick pan over medium heat. While the butter melts, I beat the eggs with a whisk until everything is all mixed up together. Then I pour the eggs into the foaming butter. I wait a second or two then, using a little spatula, I pull the eggs from the edges into the middle of the pan. The trick is to keep moving the eggs so that they don’t brown while allowing them to remain in large soft curds. They will keep cooking after you remove them from the heat and for my part, I want them soft but cooked (not runny). I pile them onto a plate and add a dollop of ketchup on the side—hot pillowy eggs; cold tangy, sweet ketchup. Pretty darn close to the perfect bite. Wish I could scramble up a panful for everyone right now.
SCREENWRITERS: IF YOU WERE PITCHING THIS MOVIE… WHAT’S THE PLOT? WHAT’S THE GENRE? WHAT MOVIE COULD BE A MODEL FOR THIS?
Senator Kelly Loeffler — from Georgia, and very Republican: she’s been an executive with ICE — was sworn in on January 6, 2020. She was briefed on coronavirus on January 24, 2020 and began adjusting her portfolio the same day; she sold stock for $18.7 million. She then bought more stock, including one in a company that makes COVID-19 protective garments. (She says she makes no financial decisions; her advisors do that for her.) Her husband is Jeff Sprecher, CEO of the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange.
ADAM SCHLESINGER
You may not know his name. Or his band, Fountains of Wayne. But when his songs came on the radio, you smiled at the catchy tunes and the clever lyrics about “dreamers, lovers, and total idiots, mostly set in his native New Jersey and the surrounding areas.” He died yesterday. The virus. Rolling Stone gathered Adam Schlesinger: 20 Essential Songs.
POEM OF THE DAY
Robert Frost reads “The Road Not Taken.”
MY TWITTER FEED
– There is no longer AM and PM. There is just “coffee time” and “wine time.” And if you have Bailey’s or Kahlua, the transition is much smoother.
– There have been days where my coffee mug and my old fashioned have coexisted peacefully on my desk together.
– I smoke a lot of weed so when I saw this I thought coffee was passing the blunt off to wine and it made perfect sense until I realized they were on a running track andddddd ohhhhhh that’s a baton. I now think in terms of “half-past coffee o’clock” and “quarter to wine o’clock.”
– That 5 o’clock cocktail hour was so pre-pandemic.
– Just opaque cups for the Zoom meetings.
– It’s wine right now. In a month it might be: do I clean my hands with the sanitizer or drink it?
– All you folks staying home, remember this. It’s what you have to look forward to in retirement.
PSA FROM SAMUEL L. JACKSON: “STAY THE FUCK AT HOME!”
A BINGE WORTHY OF 461 MINUTES
The writer of this adaptation of “Bleak House” is Andrew Davis, whose credits are impeccable (‘Pride and Prejudice,’ starring Colin Firth). The production is lavish: great houses, squalid and exalted London, a cast of 2,000. Gillian Anderson (once of ‘The X-Files’) might seem an odd choice as the wretchedly unhappy Lady Dedlock. Well, she’s astonishingly moving. This is not a minority opinion. ‘Bleak House’ had 10 Emmy nominations and won a Peabody Award.
Dickens writes in a clear, cold rage, which always purifies good writing. On the matter of the Court, he wrote from experience: In 1844, he filed suit over the disputed copyright to ‘A Christmas Carol.’ His opponents declared bankruptcy; although Dickens ‘won,’ court costs wiped out his victory. As for his passion for reform, you will never forget dear Mr. Jarndyce’s words after the death of poor little Jo: “Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us every day.” (For more, and to stream it, click here.)
ATTENTION: STERLING, VIRGINIA: IN CASE OF EMERGERCY, TRUMP IS LIKELY MOVING OUT OF WASHINTON TO STAY AT HIS GOLF CLUB IN YOUR TOWN
The Secret Service this week signed a $45,000 contract to rent a fleet of golf carts in Northern Virginia, saying it needed them quickly to protect a “dignitary” in the town of Sterling, home to one of President Trump’s golf clubs, according to federal contracting data.
The contract was signed Monday and took effect Wednesday, records show. The Secret Service paid a West Virginia-registered company, Capitol Golf Cars and Utility Vehicles, to rent 30 carts until the end of September.
The new contract, which the Secret Service described as an “emergency order,” does not mention Trump or the golf club by name.
ALL THE ESSENTIALS IN ONE PLACE
Supplements, Hand creams, soaps, and the most critical daily requirement: coffee. Plus all my dispatches. Click here.
