I know how Joe Biden feels.
Joe appeared for the debate in Cleveland, ready to parry with a narcissist and defend his position on every topic under the sun. He didn't think about having to defend his life. Apparently he should have.
I showed up for a new job last week ready to take on new battles. I didn’t think about having to defend my life. Apparently I should have.
In the days of the novel coronavirus we need new rules mandating the reporting of known exposure and symptoms. We must have the right to demand that sick people remain at home and exercise our right to stay at home when we are under the weather. We need to be constantly vigilant about the use of masks, wearing them and insisting that others do so, without being bullied or coerced do to otherwise.
Relying on the grace and good faith of strangers is not enough: there is lack. Even when the strangers are the leader of the free world and his inimitable wife.
Donald Trump was late to arrive in Cleveland Tuesday night. He took the debate podium about 12 feet away from Joe Biden, apparently without undergoing the requisite virus screening promised to participants. His Addams family entourage accompanied him, fecklessly removing mandated masks as soon as they slipped past the gate. They refused to don ones provided by a doctor monitoring the event who attempted, unsuccessfully, to enforce the rules, simply waving her away.
In my new briefcase were my wallet, a lipstick, a pocket sized version of the U.S. Constitution and a dog-earred copy of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. I also carried a specialty item, a half dozen brand new masks in different colors and styles. One for me and one for anyone who may have forgotten theirs.
We don't wear masks here, She explained quietly on the first day. Big boss, let’s call him Dolt, doesn't like them. Everyone wears them in the building, because government rules mandate it, but Dolt requires that everyone take them off as they walk through the office door.
The office is one big cavernous room with an ocean view that makes my big city lawyer friends say Oh my. There are no obstructions to the sea, with a view due East that lasts to the horizon. Waves slapping rocks keep time like a metronome, constant and reassuring, punctuating assignments and keeping work flow moving. There are no walls to impede the view, but no barriers to serve as virus catchers either.
Trump remained tight to the podium, having throttled his tradition of stalking opponents during the debate, likely due to deteriorating balance and ambulation. He nearly fell in Manchester last month as he strode to the podium. It’s not cool to topple over when you are hunting human prey. Instead of menacing, you just look pathetic.
But he too was maskless: everything he emitted when he opened his mouth escaped the bounds, particularly as he became more and more agitated and shouted down Biden and moderator Chris Wallace.
Aerated spittle and particles flew and flowed, dipped and ascended, floated and fell. Neither Biden nor Wallace knew Trump hadn’t been tested. They followed the debate rules, and relied on Trump to do the same. Biden’s entire team wore masks and kept their expectorate to themselves.
Two days later, after word leaked that presidential trouser steamer Hope Hicks had been felled by COVID-19, panic ensued at the White House. They were forced, in the middle of the night and well outside any news cycle, to admit what many observers had gathered: Trump had tested positive for COVID-19. Melania too.
People who had been in contact with the First Vectors soon announced their positive COVID status. The president of Notre Dame and two GOP Senators raised their hands as COVID-present. Heaven knows who else was in the Rose Garden on Saturday and is now hiding under the table.
Oops, there’s Kellyanne popping up. She was with Trump for a debate prep session before Cleveland. Chris Christie was there to help. He admitted in a media interview there were no masks or distancing while they prepped the disordered, demented drug addict to comport himself like a pugilist. Christie now acknowledges he is COVID-19 positive too.
It is Saturday. The Vector-in Chief, who is likely the one who set the COVID dominos falling, is hospitalized and the world speculates about whether he’s at death’s door or faking the entire scheme to avoid getting his backwards-running clock cleaned by Biden in another debate.
Team Trump is probably relieved to have the filter-less lunatic in his “suite” at Walter Reed rather than tearing down the halls of the West Wing, as the reality of COVID-19 exposure and worsening symptoms drove him into panic mode. Finally, after nearly eight months of our collective societal agony, the cries of 209,000 dead and untold millions of disabled resonated in and among his misfiring synapses, echoing his deepest fear that the COVID-19 train was making a stop at his own front door.
Picture a toddler screaming and carrying on at such volume and with such velocity that his blood pressure skyrockets, followed by him calming down and self-soothing, repeating over and over again, “I’m fucked” and mumbling incoherently to himself. Team doctors wisely transferred him out of there and admitted him to the hospital.
He’s closer to a rubber room, staffers are thinking. While he's gone, we’re safe. In the quiet they will strategize how they will lie their way out of the latest debacle.
Trump is set, obtaining the best medical care our tax dollars can buy. Melania suffers from what she perpetually causes, a low grade but constant nagging headache. Pence awaits just beyond the floodlights, maintaining a low profile and being careful not to distract any of the hallowed light of celebrity from Brother Trump. But occasionally he rubs his hands together in anticipation and pauses to ponder: is this when he gets his naked knuckles bloodied with power?
But what about Joe?
On Tuesday night, Biden was the target of wrath and spittle emanating from a COVID carrier who darkened the deabte stage and spread his disease. Vector Melania showed up on that stage too, tottering in stilettos and chic ankle pants. There was no mask and no distancing: she doesn’t care, do U?
This duo put Biden at grave risk and they didn’t bother ever to inform him that he was potentially exposed to COVID-19 during his sustained contact with them. They wore no masks to protect him and others, including members of his team and the moderator, as they moved across the stage.
Did Team Trump call Joe? Send a email or text? Flowers? A note of apology? Did they recommend that Joe and his people get tested? Hell no. After Biden pulled his attack ads, they doubled down on theirs, but avoided all mention of Biden and the presidential race during the magic hours where Trump was holed up in the White House. For nearly two hours the world awaited his departure from the White House and into Marine One for a 10 minute trip across town. The distraction was all about Trump.
What was he doing for two hours? Fixing his hair? Getting slacks steamed by a Hope Hicks wanna be? It appears he forgot to do his makeup. It seems that two hours wasn't enough time for him to rustle up his wife and doting children. None of them accompanied him to the hospital. He ambulated slowly past the media throng, raising his thumb as he does to signal OK, even when it isn’t. He didn’t pause or linger: he had no words for the nation. O, the drama.
As it turns out he made a videotape before he departed the White House. It aired as he embarked the aircraft and coptered away.
Apparently Trumplandia all assumed Joe Biden was watching cable at 1 AM as Brian Williams finally had his “aha” moment and reported what he’d been speculating about for hours: Trump is COVID positive, he intoned. Alert the media. Alert Joe Biden too, Brian. He won't find out otherwise.
Why should the leader of the free world and Bride Natasha worry themselves over something as inconsequential as morality and ethics. Rules are for the hoi polloi, not the ruling class. They smash plates and the staff cleans it up. They spread a killer virus, well that’s some else’s problem too.
On my last day on the job, after Dolt left for the day and the assistant was gone, She showed up quietly behind me as I banged out a memorandum on deadline. “I am losing my hair,” she said. “I have a fever.” Then she paused. “And my fiance and I both tested positive for COVID.”
There was 3 or 4 feet between us. No mask covering that pretty nose. It’s awful that she’s losing her gorgeous blond hair, I thought. “You’re 35 years too early for that,” I told her. “If you’re sick, what the hell are you doing in the office?”
SAY WHAT?
I’m in my sixth decade on Earth. Although I never smoked and have endeavored to take care of myself, I have a genetic lung disease and consider myself high-risk. They knew that when I was hired. They also know I care for an elderly parent who survived cancer recently, and is enduring the loneliness of isolation, dealing with the empty feeling that this is the way her life may end.
She had no compunction about appearing side by side with me in an open office without a mask. Dolt doesn’t like how it looks. She didn’t remain home when She was sick: Dolt will fire her. She didn't even say she was sorry. Dolt doesn’t believe in apologies. She didn’t suggest getting tested or isolating. Dolt says that’s for pansies. He would say “pussies” but he has seen me blanch when he uses such language on the telephone just 10 feet away from me.
She doesn’t give a damn about anyone but Herself. It is the new way of the world, you see. Everybody follows the leader. And, because irony glistens of late, She was looking for sympathy.
What does a COVID-19 carrier owe me and everyone who works in the office? What does She owe to the woman who cleaned her home days ago, the mechanic who fixed her car, the usual crowd at the neighborhood cafe who bought her an espresso and invited her to join them? She wasn’t wearing a mask for any of these things.
We all have the right to medical privacy, to obtain advice and have records prepared and expect that it will all be as protected and concealed as we deem fit. In the information age, where everyone becomes a super sleuth to relieve COVID boredom, we’re entitled to some mystery, some secrets. Personal integrity and liberty demand it.
However, in the days of a deadly disease, there must be a means to protect others from the damage we may do to them, however unintentionally. There must be a way to regulate behavior to keep sick people at home, unafraid to stand up to Dolt and his progeny. We must devise a means to educate others about what they must do if they are exposed to us and we later learn we are COVID-19 positive. Free and efficient testing and uniformity in instruction and direction will save lives.
All the state regulations, local laws, CDC guidelines and WHO recommendations don't mean a damn thing if we do not accept the responsibiltity and ethical obligation to look after each other.
I am in quarantine for 14 days. I have been tested. I contacted everyone I had encountered the week preceding She’s announcement. I expect that everyone who is COVID-19 positive will do the same, and anyone exposed to them will do likewise. I hope some enterprising journalist does a roll call on this with Trump, Melania, GOP Senators, all Congresspeople and other government leaders who are among the fallen dominos.
THIS, more than their words and mission statements, is a true measure of their ethics and morals and how much they care for the people whose interests they purport to represent.
It took Trump being infected and scared out of his mind to realize that this is not a hoax. It isn't Hope Hicks’ fault and it isn’t some staffer’s fault. The commonality among all who have tested positive this week is they had contact with Donald Trump. Joe Biden did too. I expect that Trump’s call advising Joe about this will include an apology for not wearing a mask and a recommendation for testing and quarantine.
If She tells anyone else in the office about her status, She should do it wearing a mask. She should stay home when She has symptoms. And She should tell Dolt to go to Hell.
Responsible citizenry requires it.
Friday, Oct 23, 2020 · 1:48:36 PM +00:00 · KAMMY
UPDATE: Thanks to those who have asked about how I am doing. I’m one of the lucky ones. Shock and fear have transformed to anger over injustice and cruelty. Now is the time to contemplate solutions. Here, I call on fellow members of the bar to take up this cause and help save the nation. Bless you all.
Yesterday over 71,000 more Americans were diagnosed with Covid-19. You will meet some of them today in the market, at the cafe, in the pick-up line at school. You can avoid most of them, except the one who sits mask-less at work next to you.
All it takes is one vector making a conscious decision to elect a paycheck over the health and safety of others, and another hot spot appears.
The state public health department referred me to the city health agency and I made a report. The medical facility where I was tested informed them too. The city will contact trace. Delivery people from office supplies places and local restaurants will be called and warned. Former employees too. The landlord and occupants of the building sharing a rest room and common areas will be called. The owner’s kids hung out there on computers for days at a time. Their mother will be advised: that should be interesting. Family courts, take my advice and go on lock-down right now.
My symptoms have subsided. After two negative tests, avoiding contact with people and 4 weeks of agony over landing with a group of lawyers who value money and commerce over human lives, I’ll see my mom again this weekend. I’ll explain why it has been so long since I visited and why I have been so vague about the job.
She’ll be glad that this awful experience is in my rear view mirror. She’ll urge me to tell my story and protect others. She’ll remind me to use my law degree to effect change by altering the behavior of employers who browbeat employees into eschewing masks and social distancing, and who threaten termination if they take sick days. Who comport themselves like Trump.
It’s like asbestos, she’ll say. That Johns-Manville plant in the next town killed hundreds of thousands of workers until they got sued.
She’ll be right. But it took decades of deaths to stop them.
As a rule, law lags years behind science and changes to the social compacts. This time it can’t. The government is paralyzed. Much of private industry isn’t coping well. The plaintiffs bar must take a stand and make a difference.
Leaders stepped up when asbestosis and mesothelioma knocked down factory workers and one infamous law student, who paid with his life for a summer factory job loading asbestos panels on trains. Brilliant and savvy trial lawyers will uncover the science faster than the government, dispel the hearsay and political noise and hold tortfeasors accountable.
For those whose sole objective is lucre and ego, bankruptcy can be a cruel mistress. Stories of Covid-19 victims struggling for their last breath and despair of children orphaned when the virus takes both parents within days make no impact on these narcissistic lummoxes.
But Madame Bankruptcy, she shakes her stick and she makes her point.