Reopening the economy
And the completely predictable consequences...
The cartoon you’re looking at was drawn on May 5th, but I decided to hold back posting it here until the time was right.
The time is now right.
Last Friday, Kansas City set a record for new COVID-19 cases in a single day. Before June 1, we had three days with 100 or more new cases; since June 1, we’ve had 10.
On Saturday, Florida reported 4,049 new cases; the most reported in a single day.
Also on Saturday, Tulsa County – home of Donald Trump’s weekend campaign rally – reported its highest number of new infections in a single day, the fifth time they set a new record in a single week.
Last week eight states hit single-day new-case highs.
The number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus in California is the highest it’s been since the pandemic began.
And according to John Hopkins University data, when compared to the previous week, at least 23 states are trending upward in new cases.
During that Tulsa, Oklahoma campaign rally, Donald Trump said the following:
“You know testing is a double-edged sword. Here’s the bad part…when you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people; you’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people, slow the testing down please.”
Afterwards, someone in the Trump administration tried to sell the idea that he was “obviously kidding” which raises a question: if the kidding was so obvious, why did they feel the need to explain it?
And even if you feel generous and decide to believe Trump was trying to be funny, it seems hugely insensitive to make a joke about a virus that’s killed over 120,000 Americans. The comment is either idiotic or insensitive and either interpretation misses the point.
And for that point let’s go to Thomas Inglesby of John Hopkins’ School of Public Health:
“What we are seeing is increased positivity in testing. That’s not just because we’re doing more testing in a state; that’s because there is more serious disease in a state.”
If the increase in infections were solely due to more testing, the rate of positive tests would stay the same, but it’s not – the percentage of people testing positive is going up.
Over the weekend Florida and Arizona recorded new highs in daily infections rates and health officials warned that the spikes in infections are being driven by people refusing to wear masks and avoid large gatherings.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis admitted that the number of people testing positive is accelerating.
And here’s another one from Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, a specialist in internal medicine at the California Pacific Medical Center:
“This has nothing to do with more testing and everything to do with behavior. We need to talk to people about following the guidelines, wearing masks, avoiding crowds, staying home if possible and washing their hands.”
The Trump Administration has done everything they can to downplay the seriousness of the situation, but if there were no danger to the Trump supporters who attended his rally, why did the Trump campaign apply a liability waiver to the on-line sign-up form that warned:
“You and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19.”
Basically; you shouldn’t worry about catching the coronavirus, but if you do, don’t look at us.
Hypocrisy on the left
When Donald Trump announced his plans to hold his Tulsa campaign rally, liberal critics went batshit; how could the president ignore social distancing guidelines and expose his supporters to the coronavirus?
Conservatives wondered why the liberals hadn’t gone just as batshit about the Black Lives Matter protests; if Trump was a jerk for crowding people together, didn’t the demonstrators deserve to be criticized for doing the same thing?
Fair point.
I drew this cartoon back on June 4th and posted it here the following day.
And last Friday I drew this:
Couple things happened over the weekend. Trump campaign officials pumped up expectations by claiming one meeellion people (completely unnecessary Austin Powers reference) had registered to attend the Trump rally; local officials expected 100,000 people to actually show up.
According to the Tulsa Fire Department, fewer than 6,200 people attended. Campaign officials thought there would be an overflow crowd of 40,000; turned out Trump couldn’t fill the 19,000 seat arena.
It probably didn’t help when six of the Trump campaign staffers who helped organize the event tested positive for COVID-19.
So how about those demonstrations?
Political cartoons are very good for delivering one idea at a time; not so hot at nuance.
Turns out there are a couple meaningful differences between the Trump rally and the BLM protests: the Trump rally was inside and hardly anybody wore a mask, the BLM protests are outside and from what I’ve seen most of the demonstrators wear masks.
That makes a difference, but so many people jammed together — even in a good cause — is still worrisome, so I’ll stand by what I said in all three cartoons.
What have we learned today?
Reopening the economy is resulting in more coronavirus cases and more coronavirus cases will result in more deaths. The people with expertise in infectious disease told us this would happen and it is.
The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over, so if you’re going out in public you should listen to the experts, wear a mask, keep your distance from people and if possible, do whatever you can do outside.
Also, if you want to avoid massive crowds of people, consider attending a Donald Trump rally.
Great piece!! Thank you Lee!!
You nailed it! 👏🏼👍🏼
And how many of those cases will be fatal? Or even cause hospitalization? And what is the demographic of those? Too much ado about relatively little.