The Pandemic Portal View - TomDispatch.com

The Pandemic Portal View - TomDispatch.com Liz Theoharis, Whose World Is This Anyway? May 2, 2023 I doubt I ever feel older or more passé than when I'm out in my city -- New York -- and I still put on a mask before stepping onto a bus, going into the subway, or entering a store. Increasingly, I find myself alone in a world of the unmasked with the exception of a few other ancient types like me. Once upon a time, I could look online at the Guardian or the New York Times and I wouldn't be able to avoid the latest devastating numbers on Covid-19. Now, I can read and read and read and never notice a thing. In fact, the Times did have daily figures until March 23rd when, noting that data on the pandemic from state and local health officials was fast disappearing, it added: "After more than three years of daily reporting of coronavirus data in the United States, the New York Times is ending its Covid-19 data-gathering operation. The Times will continue to publish virus data from the federal government weekly on a new set of tracking pages, but this page will no longer be updated." Still, if you do look at those weekly figures, there were 94,000 weekly cases reported in this country and -- yes -- 1,160 weekly deaths as of the moment I wrote this introduction. It's true that, at least for now, those numbers continue to decline, adding ever fewer Americans to the -- hold your breath for a moment -- 1,123,836 deaths the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported on March 10th of this year when it, too, stopped collecting data. And yes, there is indeed a new Covid booster (which I plan to get) for older adults and the immunocompromised, but I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that ever fewer Americans are even bothering. Of course, since Donald Trump and crew made the pandemic into a deeply divisive issue, for many of us, including significant numbers who died, not boosting or masking was part of our politics, not our health. Grimmer yet, the figures do show that Republicans died of Covid at a significantly higher rate than Democrats. So, today, I felt a certain kinship with TomDispatch regular and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign Liz Theoharis when she reminded us of the devastation the pandemic brought our way and the even more devastating urge now to cancel what was done in the midst of its horror to help the poor. One thing should be clear from her piece today: however the Covid crisis ends, our crisis will certainly continue. Tom