It has been less than two weeks, but it feels like we've been doing this forever!! Of course, because I'm retired (though I'm a little younger than the typical retiree) time becomes sort of amorphous, because I was accustomed to my weekly schedule giving some shape to my week; e.g. Department Meetings were on Tuesdays, and so on.
Things were made worse because my wife was permitted to work from home, for a couple of days a week, but then they hauled her in for some meetings, because there was nothing for her bosses to do otherwise. So she sat at the window, and sent out e-mail after e-mail, and made call after call, and occasionally called out some piece of news that she was getting, and which caused her indignation!
My daughter, out in Arizona, was being kept at work, though she would much rather have worked from home. She is a sort of tech trouble-shooter for her company, which is a tech-heavy operation, with several workers who got themselves constantly in trouble. But half of these were working on Mondays and Thursdays, and the other half was working Tuesdays and Fridays. Because of having to handle other people's hardware, there was actually very little distancing at her office. Arizona folks are by no means all the same. But the State Government tended to think that the virus threat was highly overblown, and the owners of the businesses took their cues, I think, from the administration. Still, many major events scheduled for February and March were cancelled or postponed, which the Arizona citizens who had bought into the idea of "This will all go away in April, like magic," shook their heads at.
It is hard to say 'I told you so,' and virtually no satisfaction in saying it, because the neighsayers (I know, I know) just shrug away these reminders, saying either that (1) it is a hoax, or (2) it was a hoax, or (3) I never said that, or (4) don't be nasty.
As the number of cases rose, most of my daughter's co-workers were quick to agree that distancing was needed, but they unfortunately did not have the sort of scientific background that would enable them to make informed judgments about what sorts of actions would prevent contagion.
Even here, in Pennsylvania---not that I believe that the education of Pennsylvanians is in any way superior---distancing was slow in catching on. On a visit to the Supermarket (which is where my pharmacy of choice is located, unfortunately) I realized that many of the shoppers, who were keeping their distance from me and from each other, seemed to believe that the virus was a sort of radiation, that traveled in straight lines.
I had realized that matters were going to get a lot worse before they got better. But I think I had the wrong impression of (A) how much worse, and (B) for how long. There is a high probability that many of us are going to be cooped-up at home for at least another month. The Democratic Convention was scheduled for July, but I can't find any information about when it is scheduled for presently. June 2nd is turning out to be another enormous set of primaries, more than half as many candidates to be awarded as on super Tuesday.
The June 2nd packet of primaries, many of which are in states that are permitting voting by mail, is certainly a last gasp for Bernie Sanders. I have to wonder why he has not fared better in the primaries up until now; the South Carolina primary, which hugely favored Joe Biden, affected the super Tuesday voters, who obviously belonged to the 'Let's follow the crowd' crowd. After all, a large part of the battle is to give support to the candidate most likely to win the primary, and then to win the election. Apart from the herd motive ('electability'), were voters too lazy to go to the polls? Will they be as lazy come November, or will they suddenly shake off their stupor, and vote bravely? What difference will the possibility of voting by mail make?
A huge factor we have to be aware of is that unsalaried workers, those who are paid an hourly wage, pay an enormous price for staying safe at home. They will be safe, but they will be hungry. There is no provision in the US for anyone to stay away from work, no matter how important it is. Businesses lose money when people stay home, and they pass along the costs to their workers, and cut their payrolls. In countries labeled as 'Socialist', there are laws that enable workers to earn a significant portion of their normal paycheck if they have to miss work for a good reason. In the US we do have such a thing. But those who can benefit from this 'employment insurance' are a small minority, and the number of weeks the benefit lasts is very small, and not sufficient to handle an epidemic such as this. There are probably many conservatives who would say: who can predict that something like this could happen? This is the whole crux of the idea of any type of insurance. I personally think insurance, as we have it today, is a load of crap. It pays companies to take risks on behalf of people, only to give up when there is a really big problem. It will be interesting to see just how much the big health insurance companies will support the treatment of large numbers of their clients infected with the virus.
The other problem is that hourly workers who cannot work due to distancing or the shutdown, are actually laid off. For no fault of their own, they cannot (automatically) return to work. This never happens in even a slightly socialist economy.
When this business is over, if Joe Biden happens to win the nomination, he will have to adopt most, if not all, of the policies that Bernie Sanders has been advocating. If Trump wins the election, he will also have to do the same. The economy (also known as The Large Corporations,) may or may not go like a rocket. But many who support Trump are, as far as I can tell, people who are hourly workers, and all eyes will be on him, to see whether he is able to make life livable for his supporters. Many independents seem to think that Trump has turned a new leaf, and it is only the dastardly Democrats who prevent him from doing great things for the Common Man. So winning this election is something that Trump desires greatly, but does he think he has the instincts to repair the economy and the nation after this huge calamity? This is not a man who think in terms of what he can do to help the common people. This, rather, is an ordinary man, who protects his own interests, and those of his friends. Even the Chinese are sending us ventilators and masks. This time, what will Trump do, if he visits the disaster zone which is New York? Toss them rolls of paper towels? But I should not be nasty.
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