What to Believe

Photo by Polina Zimmerman
from Pexels

Nobody knows what to believe right now. The president returned from the hospital to the White House last night, after receiving various experimental treatments. Was he even sick, or was he faking it to stage his triumphant "recovery?"* If he was sick, he surely can't be better already, and why is he putting people at risk by going for joyrides during his hospital stay, tweeting that people shouldn't be afraid of COVID, and whipping off his mask for a photo op as soon as he got home? This could have been his chance to convincingly turn around his messaging, say, "You know what, this disease really is serious and we should take precautions to prevent others from suffering like my wife and I just have," get his supporters on board the public health train, and possibly turn around the trajectory of this disease before the election - but he didn't take advantage of that opportunity.

How about voting? If people go in person, will they be stuck waiting for hours in an unsafe crowd situation? If they vote by mail, will their ballot be delivered in time? Even if they return their mail-in ballot in person, will it be counted in time, and will their signature match the one on file for it to count at all?

Are shut-downs even worth having? In Europe, where very restrictive lockdowns in the spring brought infection levels way down, they're now creeping back up (for example, France's infections per capita are actually way higher than the US's right now). If that's what happens after a "successful" shut-down, maybe just keeping everything limping along at partial capacity like the US seems to be doing now is the best option 🤷‍♀️

Also, today is the day I finally go to the dentist, and while I don't plan to isolate afterward I do plan to be "distant" from my husband for a few days just in case I should pick something up there. I know the dentist and hygienist are more afraid of me than I am of them, but I'm still not into the idea of having someone inside my mouth right now...

* I personally do believe he was actually infected, he was doing all the right things to catch COVID, plus there's too many other people in his orbit who are also sick, including ones who don't make political sense to put under quarantine right now. But I don't believe that he's recovered already.