A big thank you to all of you who have checked in on me and my health. I am happy to report that all systems seem to have been restored to original factory settings and that I am at usual baseline, other than feeling a bit tired and washed out. I’m hoping that will resolve over the course of the weekend (I have nothing more strenuous scheduled than plunking down in a theatre seat). The polter-cat appears to be upset about my going back to work yesterday. While I was home sick, he used the litter box faithfully; yesterday, he peed on the bedroom rug while I was at work. We’re going to have to have a serious talk about his toilet habits and how they are not the best way to call attention to himself.
I figure it’s time for an update on the world of viral disease. I’m busy writing commentary on my original pandemic essays from the vantage point of five years later and it’s interesting to revisit those times in depth. How all that is going to be released to the world is still being worked on but in the meantime, I trudge through my world of five years ago recalling events, emotional states, predictions and plans, and try to make coherent self of past self with present self. It’s not as easy as you might think as that whole period has a sort of unreality attached to it given all of the wrenching changes that happened faster than any of us were able to process them. We’re about three weeks away from the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the shut down. Sometimes it feels like last year. Sometimes it feels like last century.
In terms of current impacts of viral disease, I (and many others) are living proof that this is the worst cold and flu season in about fifteen years. Doctors offices, urgent cares and emergency departments are flooded. I can’t feel good statistics regarding morbidity and mortality of influenza, covid, RSV, human metapneumovirus, and the other critters making the rounds as the current administration has taken an axe to the reporting systems. The anecdotal evidence being gossiped about on backlines by health professionals is that it’s not good. If you are at serious risk from respiratory illness, I’d consider staying home as much as possible the next few weeks and for goodness sakes keep your hands washed. The utility of masking is debatable as it is currently not universal but it never hurts.
H5N1 bird flu continues to rip through poultry flocks requiring significant culling (and a major shortage of eggs) and also through dairy herds. There was a news report of dead bald eagles just north of us which was likely due to spread in the wild. It does not appear to have made significant inroads into humans yet and there’s still no solid evidence of human to human transmission but, once again, the reporting systems are down and if it does begin to spread in the population, it may take some time for anyone to realize it. At that point, it’s likely to be game over in terms of early containment. Given it’s high mortality rate, that’s one you really will want to mask up and stay home for, no matter what the federal government may say.
Elon and the muskrats continue to show that they haven’t a clue what they’re actually doing. On Thursday, they fired the entire contingent of federal employees responsible for the US nuclear stockpile until someone pointed out what a disaster that could become so they rapidly tried to undo it on Friday. Over at the Justice Department, they’re apparently playing Squid Games with the prosecutors until someone is left standing who is willing to violate both ethics and law to get the results they want in dealing with the corruption of NYC mayor Eric Adams. Meanwhile various Trumpanzees are trying to impeach any judge who won’t give a pass to the various illegal and unconstitutional executive orders that keep flowing off the Resolute Desk. Transgendered people are being erased both as persons and from history when the T and the Q were removed from Stonewall National Monument in the West Village leading to protests and the entire LGBTQ community is being removed from the programming at the Kennedy Center. Just another week under the current administration.
I, as an employee of the VA, received a memo from Doug Collins, the new secretary of Veterans Affairs, that pride flags are now banned on all VA property including in private offices and personal desks. I hadn’t ever considered having one at my desk before. There will be one there when I return this next week and I have more than a few things up my sleeve. The VA doesn’t know me very well if they think I will docilely comply with immoral and unconstitutional (first amendment) orders. I’m not worried about me at all. They can’t easily replace me (and they know it). There are probably about 200 people in the country with my skill set and very few of them are going to be interested in relocating to the Birmingham Alabama VA. And it things get testy, I have the option of retiring any day. (I met with my financial people yesterday and all systems are go – it’ll just take a phone call and I can leave medicine behind). I’m also shoring up the security on my accounts. The checking account is out there as that’s where deposits happen, but I don’t keep that much money there and the federal data systems don’t have the numbers of my other accounts easily accessible.
I’m off to a matinee of What the Constitution Means to Me in a couple of hours. Not much theater for me for a couple of months but I’m starting to think about Richard II that I’m to direct this summer. There’s going to be a lot of political commentary in how I do it that Shakespeare hadn’t considered but I think he’d be a fan. He was a bit of an iconoclast and anti-establishment type himself. All great artists are. I’m hardly a great artist but I do understand the role of the artist in difficult times.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 