I mentioned yesterday that many Americans have difficulty grasping the full measure of our national failure to combat COVID. People think we’re behind without realizing we’re orders of magnitude behind. People come to think catastrophe feels normal without grasping that in most other countries with a similar set of tools to the United States things really are close to normal. In a similar way even the President’s most ardent opponents are unable to see the extremity of the behavior, the bizarreness, the consistent revolt against the demands of the office, the aggressive betrayals.
Much as abuse victims don’t fully grasp the extent of their victimization before escaping their abusers, there are aspects of this dark era we’ll only see clearly in retrospect.
Going back to 2016 I’ve used abuse, particularly in homes and families, as a metaphor for Trumpism. It’s not simply or primarily a metaphor. It has many of the same characteristics, particularly for children but also in many cases for spouses, who become captive audiences for abusive behavior or in other cases the erratic and damaging behavior which can be manifestations of certain mental illnesses. Such behavior is not only damaging it profoundly shapes perceptions, something that is in the nature of the abuse itself. What we now call “gaslighting” is the effort to control not only someone’s body but their perceptions as well.
It is commonplace that victims of abuse and predation only fully grasp the degree of their victimization once they’ve exited from it.
We are all in a similar situation writ large. In but one comparatively trivial example the President has spent much of the last 48 hours arguing over his support for a hydroxychloroquine pushing conspiracy kook who claims that medicines are created with ground up alien DNA and that many basic gynecological conditions are caused by women having sex with demons.
That’s actually happening.
During a pandemic.
This is of course a comparatively minor example of the insanity and predation.
We won’t come back from this quickly. Indeed, Trump losing an election won’t even end it.
Yep. Using the abusive relationship analogy, I think the rule of thumb is that a person suffering from an abusive relationship tries to escape on average 7 times before finally and truly breaking free. If that is true, I don’t know which time we’re on, but I don’t know if we can make it through 6 more cycles of this.
“There are an awful lot of people that think it’s a great thing to do all the time, but I can’t help but think if I hadn’t been wearing a mask so much in the last 10 days or so, I really wonder if I would have gotten it,”
During times of crisis, scammers look for opportunities to gain personal information from unsuspecting people.
It has been brought to our attention by patients and the media that scammers may be posing on the phone as Sonora Quest representatives to gain patients’ personal information by claiming they have COVID-19 test results. This is called an “Imposter Scam.”
Sonora Quest may return calls to patients regarding accessing their results, but we do not provide COVID-19 results or collect payment over the phone unless initiated by the patient. Sonora Quest’s normal protocol is to provide results to the ordering physician for them to relay those results to the patient so they can provide next steps for care based on a patient’s full medical history.
Additionally, based on the regulations and expected coverage for testing, Sonora Quest is not billing patients for COVID-19 PCR or antibody testing when it is ordered by a physician. These tests are likely to be covered by insurance, if the physician’s order meets the insurer’s medical coverage guidelines, resulting in a zero out-of-pocket expense. We work directly with your insurance, or the Department of Health and Human Services for those who are uninsured. Note that this does not include direct-access testing for COVID antibodies that is self-ordered through My Lab ReQuest™ when payment is due at time of service.
Patients can always obtain their test results by contacting their ordering physician or visiting www.sonoraquest.com/results and securely logging into their patient account.
Patients are encouraged to visit our coronavirus resources page (https://www.sonoraquest.com/coronavirus) for more information on COVID-19, access to results, testing, and billing.
Please be diligent before providing personal information to anyone over the phone.
Tips to Avoid Imposter Scams
Know that Sonora Quest will never ask for your Social Security number over the phone.
Be aware that Sonora Quest will not contact you to pay for COVID-19 testing over the phone.
Verify the phone number calling you and call back to be sure it is a Sonora Quest number, if unsure.
If you did not order a test, do not provide any of your information. Hang up immediately.
Tucson public schools have been trying to develop a split attendance method: parents can choose to keep kids home and do remote learning, or kids can attend school, although they will simply be following the same remote learning curriculum by in a room on campus with proctor of sorts. The hope is that enough children will stay home that social distancing will be possible for those forced to attend in person.
Still, even that is becoming increasingly difficult to square with Arizona’s catastrophic “Reopening Fever” results.
I am curious about what is going on with our bajillon “success academy!” and jebus-madrassa “charter schools”: haven’t seen any news articles on that.
Yesterday we got some updated information from Pima County Health Dept. and our TUSD governing board on the return to in person learning on campus. The start of school remains the same date of August 10th to begin online learning.
However, due to increases in Covid-19 case in Pima County, we will delay the return of students to campus until after Labor Day, Sept. 8th.
If you have chosen remote learning, this date will not effect your child. If you have chosen in person, please know your child must attend online learning until if is deemed safe to return to school.
Please also make sure that you have notified us if your child needs a laptop as I will be sending put information about laptop distribution very soon.
Again, we will be extending online learning through Sept. 8th. Of course I will continuing to be in communication with you.
The points made in this should become part of the push for a new administration and progressive policies. TPTB don’t want workers to have more freedom, because it undermines their desire for control over people’s lives. Conservatives emphasize the pursuit of happiness, while setting up the masses for what they’ve turned into a Sisyphean experience.
Maybe one silver lining of this pandemic is that more people got to learn about what society could become. Even though the positive changes were brief (so far), and a lot of ugly truths were exposed, it might motivate more people to hope and work for improvements in the future. That’s assuming they outnumber the people who want things to get worse.
Exactly. Up to the economic freefall in 2007, I was having a devil of a time finding any meaningful and higher-than-entry-level work. The economic fallout after that just drove me into the dirt.
Finally, the stars have aligned to grant me enough capital that I can utilize to bring myself up while being able to tell those Capitalist controllers just where they can stick their bullshit jobs.
ETA: At the same time, I’m conscious of my luck, and am looking for ways to help the marginalized, like purchasing PPE for the hospital workers here in Tijuana. Suck on that, Trump!
They still don’t wear them in Norway, though recent polls show that the public is becoming more positive about masks (39%, up from 33% at the last poll). The reality is that masks are not a substitute for proper social distancing, so if your population is reliably distancing and if the penetration of the virus in your population is relatively small, then you can get away without mandatory masks.
Norwegians have started to travel to places where the virus is less controlled, and they are starting to bring in the infection as a result, so I don’t know how long they will be able to get away with the no-mask thing.
