White people think they’re immune! They really do. Their actions give it away.
Velo-Vixen and I took a trip this Memorial Day weekend. Her daughter, who is a cardiologist, in Huntsville, Alabama asked VV to come see her two granddaughters. It didn’t take much coaxing and VV had just finished knitting a blanket for the oldest (she’s five).
Velo Vixen has a Tesla Model 3 so stopping for gas wasn’t an issue and Tesla’s charging stations in the East aren’t as busy as the one’s out West. Driving I-40 to Knoxville then thru Chattanooga angling over to Huntsville from there.
The charging station in Knoxville is in a retail development and Tennessee is pretty much open. The crowds were out and hardly anyone was wearing a mask or practicing social distancing. The Asheville charging station is also in a retail development, but North Carolina isn’t as open as TN. We also stopped in Chattanooga to top off the battery since there isn’t a charging station in Huntsville and where we were staying didn’t have a destination charger.
We limited our activities to the house and a few outdoor locations ( a walking trail and the botanical gardens, outdoor only).
However, when driving around or picking up ordered food one gets to see how others are treating SARS-CoV-2. White people think they are immune!
Seriously, young, old and everything in between. The way most of these people were reacting you would never know there’s a killer virus out there. Trump’s misinformation campaign is being successful. If the GOP governors don’t continue to hide their numbers I’m looking for an explosion of cases by mid June with the correlating numbers of deaths to follow by the 4th of July. Just in time for another holiday crazy, (And by then the Disney Theme Parks will be open.
We were wearing our masks, wiping things down, washing or sanitizing our hands with every interaction, but who knows what everyone else was doing.
Trump, the GOP, Fox News and the rest of the propaganda machine have done their job. Too well. IMHO, it’s not going to be the communities of color who will have the higher casualties it will be Trump and the GOP’s base. Memorial Day, 4th of July followed by the GOP convention and Trump rallies. Governors hiding the reality of SARS-CoV-2 numbers won’t really help Trump, but it could very well kill their base. Because white people aren’t immune.