Our Leaders Have Completely Failed Us — Again
There’s no more excuses.
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I’m watching a 3-year-old girl in an ICU.
She’s gasping for breath.
Look:
I have a 3-year-old.
When I look at this child, I see my own. I wonder what would happen if she got that sick and we couldn’t find a hospital. In fact, pediatric ICUs in my state are all full. They’re full in the surrounding states too.
So it’s a real possibility.
Barely a month ago, doctors were practically rolling their eyes at parents who worried about sending their children back to school.
They told us we were panicking.
People sent me emails asking if I had a mental illness, and why I was using my blog to work through my phobias.
Governors banned mask mandates. Heads of teacher unions declared it was imperative we “go back to normal” in the fall. Politicians called teachers cowards for wanting to offer remote learning options. The CDC all but announced the end of the pandemic.
Even now, public intellectuals like Glenn Greenwald equate the risks of covid with the risks of dying in a car accident on the way to school.
They were all wrong.
Dead wrong.
We should’ve known better.
This didn’t have to happen.
We saw what happened in India this summer. Instead of learning, we did what Americans do best. We ignored the news.
We got arrogant, and complacent.
Now we’re paying for it.
Worse, those of us who did everything right are also paying for it. That 3-year-old girl didn’t do anything wrong. Neither did her parents. They took every precaution. Her mom’s a nurse who takes care of covid patients, including the ones who’ve been mocking masks and vaccines.
