Trump's Inadequacy 02/05/2020

Another Thursday, another nationwide round of applause as an act appreciation for our country's NHS.

 As a concept, I think this national support for our health care service is a really meaningful gesture, albeit a relatively ineffective one. It won't save any lives but maybe that's not the point. In this period of uncertainty, perhaps a show of moral support for the health workers who are risking their lives to help prevent and control the spread is enough and I'm just a pessimist. It is after all the small things that often mean the most. If nothing else, it's a chance to make sure that all of our neighbours are still alive and well. From a safe distance of course. That being said, i have absolutely no doubt that it is the working class neighbourhoods, the likes of which have been most effected by Corona Virus (unsurprisingly), whose residents are the ones applauding on their streets. I wouldn't expect to see the same sort of communal togetherness in somewhere like Darras Hall for example. One can only hope that this weekly reoccurrence of support and gratitude is making all the toris who have consistently pushed for the privatisation of the NHS cowering in shame. Not to sound insensitive, but in a way I can really see the benefits of Boris Johnson having contracted the virus. Having been given a taste of his own medicine in really quite a literal way has hopefully made him realise how essential free health care is, and how important our health care staff are.

Another sort of positive to come out of the pandemic has been the excuse its given ex-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to really push for the 'Medicare for All' scheme in the hopes of obtaining free health care for all in America. It seems both tragic and unfathomable that it's taken a globally life threatening virus to make people wake people up and realise not only that free health care ought to be a right, but also that generally in America, the number of issues with the way the country is run is monumentally shocking. When it gets to the point where there are kids in America relieved by the prospect of the continual closure of schools due to Corona-Virus because it dramatically decreases the risk of school shootings, of which they're terrified, there's no really no other way to describe the state of the country for which a pandemic can actually be described as soothing, other than colossally fucked up. Of course there are still Americans who've not yet come to the realisation of the necessity of free health care such as president Donald Trump whom, with regards to Covid-19, seems to be as incompetent at reacting and managing Corona Virus as he is with regards to literally every other new development we've seen since his inauguration, political or otherwise. 

Reddit user 'Andy Balk' mapped out corona-virus related quotes from Trump onto a graph which features in an article in 'The Independent'. It shows the correlation between the US president's ill-judged concern for the threat and the rising number of Covid-19 cases. At the beginning of February, Americans were assured that they "pretty much shut it down coming from China. It's going to be fine". A view Trump maintained into March when he insisted that they were "doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down". It was only when the states had reached a state of National Emergency that Trump claimed that he'd always known "this is real, this is a pandemic". Quite frankly, the sheer stupidity of the man is stifling, only exacerbated by the crisis. Honestly I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry at the dire situation Americans find themselves in under his presidency, but that's old news.

The report that Trump had unfortunately failed to contract corona warranted sighs of disappointment within my household, as I'm sure was the reaction over much of the globe. Although given the current death toll of almost 243,000 world wide, I think even the death of one of the most deplorable and incomprehensibly idiotic men in politics would offer little consolation at this point. Selfishly, and in the least patriotically intended way possible, thank god we're in the uk instead of America. If nothing else, at least no one's banging on about Brexit anymore.