Five years ago this week, I was very upset with then-Gov. Charlie Baker. Unlike some of his counterparts across the country, he had not yet declared a state of emergency due to the number of reported COVID cases here. I took care of this for him.
Little did I know then what a sustained state of emergency we would all face. But as the pandemic spread and a feckless felon showed no regard at all for human life, I had every right to be worried. If only we were in a better place now.
Today we are in a worse place, though I am not. Older and perhaps just a tad wiser, consider this:
While COVID has forever changed our lives, indeed we are lucky just to be alive. And the excess death 47 is responsible for during his first term should not be forgotten.
Not sure what “excess death” means? Well, you would be forgiven if you think it is a plot point in “Mickey 17,” which I saw last weekend.
Excess death refers to the number of reported deaths minus the number of expected deaths. Historical death data gives us an idea what average mortality looks like over a given period. Using statistical methods, more precise estimates are possible using seasonal variation and year-to-year trends in mortality.
Not surprisingly, America’s COVID disaster resulted in nearly half a million excess deaths. Adding insult to their own unnecessary deaths, Republicans bore the brunt of this, misled as too many still are by a more unfit miscreant.
But even though Muskrump has learned nothing—not one single thing—here we are with a measles outbreak in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, not to mention a tuberculosis surge in Kansas and bird flu all around.
Good news: You don’t have to be a Nobel Prize winning scientist to know all the cuts to USAID will come back to haunt us. If you survived COVID, you can count on this.
Five years later, I am grateful to be alive, even if the present feels like déjà vu all over again. Movies helped me survive one pandemic, and God forbid history repeats itself, but at least I would know where to start.
Honestly, I would go back in time and rewatch “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” the last movie I saw in a theater before lockdowns began. Because I was still in the Berkshires, naturally I caught this at The Triplex Cinema. I bet you remember the last flick you saw in a pre-COVID theater, too.
What has changed in your life since then?
