THE CORONA VIRUS, TRUMP, AND DR. FAUCI

                              THE SOLUTION
                              By Hugh Murray
    In 2016 I voted for Donald Trump for President of the USA.  I was generally satisfied with his leadership until 2020.  Then the corona-virus hit China, the world, and America.  In response, Trump signed into law spending trillions of dollars to try to maintain the American economy, even giving $1,200 to many (if not most) Americans.  I was shocked - the weird, highly inflationary proposal by Andrew Yang, candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for President, became American policy under Republican Trump.  Far worse, Trump appointed a virus committee led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose predictions about the virus are constantly being shown as grossly exaggerated, but whose prescriptions indicate his power-hungry, narrow-minded, authoritarian approach to society.  His implicit assumptions: the virus is quite deadly; we must limit infection so as not to overburden hospitals (while closing hospitals to "elective surgeries" even when they may be necessary to maintain health and life).  Fauci's influence has pushed Trump and state governors to crack down, and place most people under quarantine home arrest.  In the past, this has been imposed on the infected to prevent spread of the disease; under Fauci's expansive government authority - it is imposed on the healthy.  The economy is crumbling.  Fauci speaks of leveling the curve, so the rise in cases become manageable.  When Trump suggests use of an old malaria drug to cure the new virus, Fauci dismisses this as anecdotal.  We would need double-blind tests, etc.  I urge all to watch the US Public Television program, "Independent Lens" about Jim Allison, a cancer researcher who had to go against the medical establishment with his cure for some forms of cancer.  His early success was just anecdotal.  Eventually, he got FDA (Federal Drug Agency) approval for double-blind studies, which were quite costly and paid for by a major pharmaceutical company.  These took 5 years, before he won approval.
    Does Dr. Fauci, who says we must continue restrictive lives until a vaccine is found, mean we must remain shut down for a minimum of 5 more years?  He dismisses "anecdotal" evidence.  So America must await the approval of Dr. Fauci before we can re-open our society.  That would be, at earliest, in 2025.  Of course, he does not give a year, just hints of the virus may rise again in the fall of 2020.  Of course, it will because many have been hidden away under house arrest, unable to get the virus and the immunity it would provide.  Fauci is power-hungry and is destroying America.
    The virus is not very deadly for those under 50.  There is no reason for schools to be closed.  It is terrible that those following Fauci maintained that older patients who had stabilized in a hospital, should be released AND RETURNED to nursing homes, where they spread the virus among the most vulnerable to the disease.  The death rate at some nursing homes is quite high, because they were not meant to handle the serious virus cases (no ventilators, etc.).  But the govt. was contending they could not remain in hospital and must be returned to nursing homes.  A murderous policy.
      An open-America policy would allow most to become infected with the virus, and for the vast majority, there would be no serious consequences.  Recent data shows many more infected than previously thought.  Most are totally unaware they had it.
    Bottom line: I voted for Trump in 2016.  In 2019 I got Democrat Andrew Yang's inflationary policies.  I also got Fauci's police state restrictions against free speech, freedom of assembly, and at Easter, even against freedom of religion.  Horrendous!
      So I propose that President Trump now run against Democrat former VP Joe Biden, but run against Biden for the nomination of the Democratic Party for President in 2020.

A REMINISCENCE

To a friend

    , When we spoke on the phone yesterday, I mentioned that I studied at NYU in the summers of 1965-66.  My "dorm" had been a hotel a block or 2 north of Washington Square Park.  Apparently, one resident continued to stay in the building even tho it was no longer a hotel, but a dorm.  This was a tall building, probably about 50 stories.  Yesterday, on the phone I had a "senior moment," and could not recall the man's name.  I finally remembered his name - a fellow resident in the NYU dorm when I lived there during the summer of 1965 - Dr. Otto Nathan.  The elderly lady at the reception desk was always mean to him, harassing him, "you don't belong here," etc.  He tried to ignore her as much as possible but had to go through her to ask for his mail, etc.  We had some small chats.  Dr. Nathan was the executor of Albert Einstein's will.

    Other than my 3-day visit to NY - probably in 1962 - this was my first real visit to the city.  Fantastic.  The hotel/dorm was near Greenwich Village, Wash. Square park a block away, the Militant Labor Forum, the Free U. of NY, book stores everywhere, coffee houses on Bleeker, terrific.  And I met a surprising number of folks whom I knew from Tulane U. walking in the area.  I recently read a book and realized that in that 1965 summer I missed an important lecture at the Militant Forum, as its guest speaker was Malcolm X.  His speech from that occasion is discussed in Christopher Caldwell's 2020 book, The Age of Entitlement.  In the next summer, 1966, the same forum would be filled to hear another guest speaker, me.  Malcolm did not come to hear my lecture, either.

     By the mid-70s, the book stores had disappeared, replaced mainly by liquor stores.  The Strand and a few others were the hold outs, but the trend was not good, in so many ways.  By the 1980s, street bums would walk into the 8th St (or St. Marks) Bookstore, steal a few volumes, go outside and place them on their filthy blankets on the sidewalk, and try to sell the looted material.  All part of the decline of NYC.

    By the way, I did not look up Dr. Nathan's name on google, I remembered him (of course, after our phone call).  Now I'm waiting for a spin-off on the tv show Jeopardy, "The Next Day."  Instead of answering questions within a few seconds, contestants would have 24 hours to recall the answers to the required by the game-show host.  For those older than me, another spin-off will be called "The Next Year," giving seniors a year to remember the answer.  Just joking.  By the way, I call the program Jeo-pardy.

    Hey, you may not have to pay rent any more with the new Trump/Pelosi relief law?  

    Hugh Murray