I’ve had every intention of writing one of these essays? missives? screeds? for the last couple of evenings but as I’ve bumped up on the end of the day, I have just been too tired to put coherent thoughts together and have crawled into bed and the deathless phrases forming in my mind have petered out in dreamland. I’ve been far more fatigued than usual this week. I don’t know if it’s readjustment after two weeks off and now back to the usual grind or perhaps its post viral slowdown after having had yet another respiratory virus while off in Ireland a couple of weeks ago. Whatever the cause, I hope it wraps itself up soon as I have to begin directing Shakespeare in just over a week and I’ll need all of my wits and energy about me. Fortunately this next week is a short week due to the Juneteenth holiday so that may helpme get back into fighting shape.
There’s not a lot going on in my life other than the usual work stuff, hopefully soon to be made a bit easier by the arrival of my nurse practitioner to help spell my patient care duties in the VA half of my job. That process only took about eighteen months, interrupted as it was by the federal hiring freeze and the like. She’s someone I worked with at UAB for years so I know she’ll fit in very well with the VA rural house call program that’s my major responsibility on that side of the street. So far the shockwaves that are roiling academic health systems and federal agencies have spared my little corner of the world. I’m wise enough to know that it’s a temporary reprieve while the system rebalances. The ultimate endgame will be the usual one – forced to do more with less. I’ve been playing it for decades and know how to respond and how to push back but I am getting tired. I’ll have been part of the medical system for forty one years this August. It’s time to let younger generations take it all on.
There’s not a lot to report on the covid front. Hospitalization, mortality, and complication rates have all been in significant decline in the US for the last six months and we’re now well below where we were a year ago. Will there be a surge again this fall or winter? Time will tell. Vaccine remains available and the recommendations from the experts continue to be for an annual booster in the fall (with an additional spring booster if you have significant risk from the disease due to immunodeficiencies or serious lung issues). It’s unclear if there will be vaccine available this fall given the moves HHS secretary Kennedy is making. Despite his promises to the senate to not monkey with the vaccine system in order to get the votes he needed for confirmation, he went full antivax this past week, firing the entire CDC expert panel on vaccines, all researchers with years and years of expertise in evaluating vaccine science. His replacements have, so far, been individuals whose major qualifications are covid vaccine contraryism, many without significant credentials or expertise. Kennedy’s reasoning is that the prior panel members were compromised by ties to industry (all conflicts of interest were transparent and members recused themselves if an issue came before them that impacted any industry ties they might have), that vaccines haven’t been subject to rigorous testing for safety and efficacy (they have), that vaccines are linked to autism (they aren’t – that’s been debunked in dozens of studies) and that it’s best to start with a clean slate. We shall see. I don’t really want to see us return to a society where pretty much every family lost a child before age 5 due to a preventable disease but maybe that’s just me.
Tomorrow our president is hosting a military parade ostensibly to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US Army but more about self aggrandizement and his 79th birthday. To me, it reeks of Soviet Russia or North Korea and not the sort of thing we do in this country but I suppose those with inflated egos must be placated. At least that seems to be the general attitude in the capital these days. The opposition is planning widespread general demonstrations in response. I approve in theory but I’m afraid that they may end up doing more harm than good if agent provacateurs – from either side – lead people into asinine action. Peter Coyote, the 80s indie film actor who now appears to be a professor of zen buddhism released an essay recently regarding protesting in the age of Trump that I found very interesting. It’s easily googleable. Taking a couple of pages from his book, he notes that the optics of demonstations and how they can be portrayed in the media are as important, if not more so, than what actually happens on the ground. We can see that in how the administration has handled what happened this week in LA. A relatively minor disturbance there (less violent and widespread than those after major football championship upsets) became defined by smoke, flame, some half dressed young men waving Mexican flags and it was turned into a narrative of a city in flames with both the National Guard and the Marines called out which has now led to major standoffs between federal and state power. Side issues have included the tackling of a US senator in a Homeland Security press conference, the administration’s continued ignoring of judicial orders regarding immigrant cases, and the president’s backtracking on previous positions as his wealthy friends start complaining about the depletion of their workforces.
I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow but if I ran the protests, I would encourage everyone to dress as if for church, leave the flags and the signs for pet causes at home, and carry American flags to represent the people and constitutional power, and be as quiet and polite as possible. An overreaction against crowds of well dressed average Americans decked with the symbols of the country would create a powerful visual statement which could help sway the middle back away from the fascist impulses of the current administration. Those of us in Birmingham should be well versed in the optics of Bull Conner acting in the name of ‘public safety’ back in the early 60s.
Must run – have a show to cast. Hopefully we’re not all living under martial law next week but I put nothing past the collection of zealots of various stripes to whom we’ve turned over our public institutions.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 