Earlier this week I got a text message from my doctor warning me to stay home, according to the governor’s latest order. The Covid-19 cases are exploding all over the area, not just Los Angeles, but also here in Santa Barbara. Shortly afterwards my son, Dr. Boyle the Younger, from Los Angeles, and said that practically every patient who has walked through the doors of his hospital recently, regardless of their ailments – broken limbs, severed fingers, general malaise and much worse – will also be infected with the virus was. Shattering news indeed. The vaccine is already ready, the vaccine that I am so eagerly waiting for.
Both my doctor and my son will be vaccinated next week, as will all other healthcare workers. Afterwards, the residents of the nursing homes are vaccinated, and a few weeks later the elderly people stand in line for their injections. Then the rest of the population. (Except, of course, the “anti-Vaxxers,” the vaccine opponents, who are now following precisely the right-wing disinformation services that have already brought us Trump.) For my part, I am in a state of great fear – I don’t want the last soldier dying on the battlefield just as the armistice is signed.
Speaking of which, I read about Rudolph Giuliani’s Covid 19 infection with grim satisfaction. He’s getting exactly what he deserves. Because he continues to hold rallies and spread Trump’s bogus arguments in favor of canceling the election. And yet it is sad when you consider how many deluded innocents he has infected.
Giulani gets $ 20,000 a day for his services, they say (I wonder if that goes for weekend days too?). Listen to yourself: how far would you humiliate yourself for so much money? How far would you collaborate with the slanderers and the unprincipled? Is money all that matters? For Rudy, all of this will pay off if he one day writes (or rather, has someone write) a book. They then buy the book like crazy, the gullible, the misled, the “anti-Vaxxers” and “anti-maskers” and Trumpists.
And me? For the time being, I am thinking primarily of the immediate future. Trump will be gone, America is rejoining the Paris Agreement, the virus is on the retreat, and maybe, if the atmosphere is not already beyond recovery, spring will come. Until then, we look forward to seeing Joe Biden at the White House. Am i excited about him? Yes. Admittedly, he’s less of a savior than, above all, the anti-Trump, and I would have actually preferred any movable lump of meat to our would-be dictator. But I didn’t choose Biden out of cold calculation. It brings us what the Democrats stand for, the values that I also represent – education, truth, science, environmental protection, women’s rights, multiculturalism, equal opportunities. This is all a far cry from what we have endured over the past four years.
What I mean by that? Things are looking up, friends. Feel blessed. And keep your masks on a little longer.
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