Politics and reality

For those who haven't been reading for a long time, I live in a rural part of Connecticut and ordinarily commute to work in Providence. The university has been closed for two weeks and I've been working remotely, but I had to go to the office yesterday to get some files off of my personal computer. You don't notice that things are very different out here in the boondocks, but it was very strange to see the downtown of Providence largely deserted.

Notably, however, Rhode Island has so far had few confirmed cases of Covid -- 203 -- and only 28 people hospitalized. As far as I know there have been no deaths yet, although 11 people are in the ICU. Nevertheless, the governor and city officials got out ahead of the epidemic, and shut down schools, bars and restaurants, and other gathering places, and ordered people to stay at home as much as possible. Same in Connecticut, although we have a more advanced epidemic with 29 deaths so far. (Most of the activity has been in the southwest part of the state, in the New York suburbs, but it is gradually spreading east and north.)

Contrast this with some Republican governors, who seem to view the question of the epidemic risk as partisan. (The linked post also mentions NY Mayor de Blasio's oddly cavalier attitude but that's a personal quirk.) Then there's the Republican governor of Mississippi, who issued an executive order that appeared to override local decisions to close businesses and classified gun shops, department stores, home-repair services, mass transit, Uber and Lyft services, and real-estate offices — as "essential." After a firestorm of criticism from local officials, he later said he didn't mean to override local decisions, but that was only after the chaos and confusion.

Listen folks, reality doesn't respect your political ideology. Denying what is obviously happening around you is not a good strategy for survival.

Here's a tip: You don't need hand sanitizer. Washing with soap and water is actually more effective. Plain old soap is just as good as anything labeled antibacterial, also, which is a scam. All soap is antibacterial and antiviral. Do spend 20 seconds. Do it anytime you think you touched a surface that might have been contaminated.