Academic Rants

Weeks ago, I easily accepted the early University of Washington estimates of 200,000 to 2 million American citizens dying from COVID 19. While I hope that we don't see such numbers the lower figure is easily attainable. Less than 1% of the nation has been tested and we are already discussing reducing restrictions and having people return to work and sending children back to school. Nationally, the numbers of infected people has not decreased. It has only spread from state to state-in essence changing geographical locations. I realize that Americans are uncomfortable staying at home. Too many people are out of work and people need money. At the same time, it is obvious that abruptly sending people back to work will only increase the potential for greater rates of infection. With more than 738,000 infected, 38,000 dead and 65,000 recovered in less than eight weeks, it is easy to imagine hundreds of thousands dead. No major virus has lasted less than a year.  My points of reference ...

A long month into the COVID 19 crisis has revealed the best and worst of America and Americans. Currently the United States has more COVID infections (500,000+) and deaths (21,000+) than any other nation on earth. And, while the actual rate of infections and deaths are now questionable, infection and death are still daily events. The pandemic has proven that our nation and our leaders were not prepared for something that was developing news as early as December 2019. Our intelligence community warned the senior administration in December. Further briefings continued throughout January 2020, expanding the scope of participants and the details of the impact of the virus. By late January, the novel coronavirus was a subject on the nightly news. As a historian, I know that we have a great deal of information on mass illnesses, epidemics and pandemics. The United States has encountered multiple viruses in its history from its founding to the present. George Washington encountered smallpo...