In our New Corona-Reality, Is "I Don't Know" a Mantra?

On our radio show (Speak Up, Las Cruces!”), Walt Rubel and I, and all who called in, readily confessed we don’t know what’s going to happen in the new corona-reality, but are following expert advice. Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Debbi Moore, when she called late in the show, remarked on everyone’s confessions of ignorance. Businesspeople and economists interviewed by others are also saying “I don’t know” a lot.

“I don’t know,” has otherwise been an increasingly rare phrase in political discussions. On most subjects, even if we know little, we readily wade in shouting opinions. Might we all learn from candidly confessing our ignorance during this challenging time?

It’s no secret that Republicans, particularly in the Executive Branch, reject a lot of science. They’ve denied anthropomorphic climate-change, muzzled scientists who work for the Feds, and savaged the U.S. State Department. They’ve eliminated many positions in which experts might articulate politically inconvenient facts about health or environment.

Noting this Republican rejection of science, we asked U.S. Senator Tom Udall whether he thought that, in this crisis, Senate Republicans were tending to get to work, without rejecting expert advice that might be bad for business. He said the folks he worked with (and he’d worked with many to pass the emergency relief act) were indeed “really looking at the evidence and listening,” adding, “I think that’s why they allowed us to move off this corporate-only bill to a very expansive bill, which was exactly what our pubic-health officials were telling us we should be doing.” (The final bill is still overly kind to some corporations, banks, and airlines that lobbied Senators unusually hard.)

Hours later, it was particularly jarring to read that Mr. Trump was suggesting the country could “reopen” in three weeks – and alleging that the “Lamestream Media” was blowing up the coronavirus stuff to torpedo his reelection prospects. 

 

Has Trump hit a new low? Imagine FDR complaining that Republicans were exaggerating the significance of Pearl Harbor to make him lose votes. 

 

Trump’s mindless “tweets” ignore reality. The global need for a massive response to this virus isn’t a media invention. Trump’s own scientific advisors and political appointees, standing six feet away from him during press briefings, stress the need for lockdown measures. They do it not because of some ephemeral philosophy but because they’ve seen what happened in China, Italy, South Korea, and Taiwan. 

 

Italy is an instructive tragedy. In China, they’ve stemmed the huge tide of COVID-19 cases, and are barring travelers from here. During the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918, U.S. cities responded differently. St. Louis immediately locked down, enforcing physical distancing. Philadelphia threw a 200,000-spectator Liberty Loan parade on September 28. Three days later vast numbers of sick Philadelphians jammed the hospitals. In October, 250 people per 100,000 were dying from Spanish flu. St. Louis peaked at one-eighth that. 

 

I’m not making this stuff up. Maybe we could forego restrictive measures and somehow skate through without massive problems; but I’m not hearing anyone with real knowledge of the facts suggesting we try. 

 

Trump’s reaction here is not just nutty. It’s not just kind of dangerous. It’s possibly life-threatening. Experts stress that lifting restrictions too soon would kill many more people and ultimately hurt our economy more. They might be right.

If “I don’t know” catches on – meaning not, “I don’t need to know,” but “I have more to learn about this,” Trump will certainly be immune.

                                                      – 30 --

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 29 March 2020, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air during the week on both KRWG and KTAL-LP, 101.5 FM (www.lccommunityradio.org) and is also available at the KRWG site.]

[Whether or not "I don't know" catches on, I sure don't know anything.  Here Trump has demonstrably (a) weakened our ability to spot a pandemic and react quickly and sensibly before it even hits the U.S., (b) delayed following the experts' advice and even mocked the problem as a Democratic hoax, (c) most recently [apparently] caused medical supply vendors to stiff Michigan because it has a young, female, Democratic Governor he doesn't like (then declined to take her calls!), and (d) made noises that he might lift restrictions prematurely -- and polls show him above water for the first time!  I don't know nothing.  If what we're hearing about his treatment of Michigan (and Washington State) is accurate, and he carries that key "swing state" -- what lunatic planet do we live on?]

[Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told a radio station Friday that medical supply vendors informed her they’ve been told “not to send stuff” to her state amid the battle against COVID-19.
She couldn't say whether this was a White House order or the vndors were intimidated by Trump's feud with her.  
When she tried to call the president Thursday night to discuss the issue, she couldn't get through. He was actually trashing her to Fox "News", referring to her "as that young . . . woman governor from Michigan."
To review the bidding, the Administration told states to go it alone on medical supplies, Michigan was trying, and vendors with whom Michigan had contacts are being told by someone not to send Michigan supplies.  Shipments of personal protective equipment are being “canceled” or “delayed” — and sent instead to the federal government. Whitmer says other states are experiencing the same. She said it’s happening to other states as well.

At a press briefing Friday, Trump said he had instructed Vice President Mike Pence (head of Trump's coronavirus task force) not to call the governors of Michigan and Washington. The two states have among the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the nation.Trump reportedly said, “I say, ‘Mike, don’t call ... the woman in Michigan. It doesn’t make any difference what happens.’” I'll be curious to learn more about the context of that.  Can it rally be as bad as it looks?!  Whitmer won election by nearly a 10% margin, and has responded appropriately to Mr. Trump.]

[By the way, on "Speak Up, Las Cruces!" we're still doing our regular Wednesday morning discussion show, as well as half-hour "Cruces Coronavirus Updates" at 9 Mondays and Fridays.  The Wednesday show has been devoted to coronavirus and the shutdown recently, with discussions this past week with Senator Udall, local business leaders, a psychologist, and a nurse who's on the front lines in Baltimore.  This coming Wednesday we'll talk with local expert Dr. Obiefuna Okoli (recorded a couple of days ago) and local health experts, as well as local officials and another psychologist, plus someone who knows how this is playing out with immigrants detained by the federal government.  AND YOU!  We invite phone calls, at 575 526-KTAL -- 526 5825.
Starting 15 April, we'll be discussing (by phone) local primary election races, with the candidates.  We've a full schedule for April and May.  That tentative schedule is:

4/15 9 a.m. Dona Ana County Treasurer

4/22 8 a.m. Dona Ana County Clerk 

9 a.m. Lou Gerber

4/29 8 a.m. Dona Ana County Commissioner (District 4) Dem;

 9 a.m. County 4 GOP

5/6 8 a.m. Dona Ana County Commissioner (District 2)  

9 a.m. District Attorney

5/13 8 a.m. N.M. State Senate Dist. 38 GOP 

9 a.m. Senate 38 Dem

5/20 8 a.m. N.M. State House Dist. 34 

9 a.m. Senate 31

5/27 8 and 9 a.m. U.S. Congressional Dist. 2 ]

Viruses, Soap, Cities and Us

I write about the world around me.

But when that world is so schizophrenic . . .? It’s a beautiful day, the dog is happy to see us, I feel great; and our county had no known cases of Covid-19 as I started this column – then suddenly did. 

 

Elsewhere people are dying. Doctors are without masks. Patients lack ventilators. Urban medical personnel risk their health daily. Our bars and restaurants and stadiums are as silent as graveyards.

There are things that feel urgent to say, though others are saying them.

First, soap. Use it. It’s a miracle: soap is pin-shaped molecules, each with a hydrophilic (loves water) head and a hydrophobic (hates water) tail. Washing, you surround microorganisms (including coronavirus) with soap molecules. The hydrophobic tails, to hide from the water, wedge themselves into the microbes, like crowbars, prying them apart. Essential proteins spill out, rendering the virus impotent. Meanwhile other soap molecules disrupt chemical bonds the viruses use to cling to your skin. Soap lifts virus molecules, suspending them in floating cages – until you rinse them away. Neat!

Second, don’t be shy about social distancing. People are still asking whether they’ll offend by wearing gloves and a mask? A couple of U.S. Congressmen kept shaking hands (from courtesy or habit, or a habit, or because of certainty that their nice, well-dressed supporters and colleagues couldn’t possibly have cooties) and have tested positive. No one will be offended by your keeping your distance, refraining from hugs and handshakes, or wearing a mask. (Except some idiot not worth risking your health over.) Protecting yourself helps protect everyone. 

 

Watching footage of spring break students in crowds at beaches, I want to shout a warning. Yo! I know what you heard (and how we all feel when young) that it’s only about old folks; but the experts are learning Covid-19 can seriously harm the health of younger folks, too.

We were the last two customers in the Shed Wednesday, as the restaurant learned of the new closure order. We have a great line-up of local restaurants and coffee houses we love – as, I’m sure, do you – such as Milagro, Nessa’s, Vintage Mercado, and many more – and the Co+Op, still offering made-to-order sandwiches and sides to go. If your favorites offer takeout during the crisis, take some. (Authorities say there’s no evidence this gets transmitted through food preparation/service.) And support local small businesses as much as you can when we return to “normal.” 

 

Meanwhile, when we get to laugh with friends, we’re grateful. And our fresh-food farmers’ market vendors seem like heroes. 

 

For some this crisis will be a blessing in disguise. As we rush madly about, many of us have lost the ability to be alone with ourselves. To stop for a moment and contemplate. Many will now have that opportunity, particularly since there are no sports to watch on TV. Families (for better or for worse) will be spending more time together. 

 

I wonder if we might even benefit from the spirit of unity that should mark what’s in effect a war. Perhaps battling Covid-19 together will dwarf our political differences, and perhaps that spirit will linger a while after we pull through. (Perhaps, too, both Republicans and Democrats will refocus on nominating and electing high officials who are thoughtful, capable, and qualified – and sometimes put our nation ahead of their personal interests now and then.)

Keep healthy and safe!

                                                    - 30 -

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 22 March 2020  (wouldn't it be fun to live long enough to write 22 February 2222!?) in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  A radio version will air during the week on KRWG ("Rreflections on Life amid Coronavirus) and on KTAL, 101.5 FM (www.lccommunityradio.org), and will be available later today on KRWG's website.  I also just noticed that KRWG has also posted "How Life Is Changing after COVID-19"  -- reflections on the same subject by our friend Algernon D'Ammassa -- who's already got his spoken version up, too.  Jeez, you're industrious, man!  Since he's a thoughtful Buddhist, I think I'll read that. . . . Well, now I have, and recommend it.  Not merely because I agree with A, but because it's well and clearly expressed.]]

[blink! I've been doing half-hour radio updates on COVID-19 on KTAL-LP Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 9 a.m., with the Wednesday one sort of folded into our regular 8-10 a.m. "Speak Up, Las Cruces!" show.  So I've been keeping up.  Friday my column said we'd had no cases in Dona Ana County ("for a moment!") but as soon as I sent it to S-N Editor Lucas Peerman, he advised me we now had one.  By Saturday we had our second.  No surprise.  On radio I'd guessed there were a few cases wandering around here untested.  We should all assume there will be plenty.  Let's hope we don't end up with the kind of medical overload they're experiencing in Baltimore, New York, and other cities.  Seattle is reportedly tracking Italy. (On Wednesdays show -- or on one of the updates -- we'll talk with a nurse in Baltimore, a Las Cruces native.)  Note: by Sunday afternoon, we're officially up to 65 cases in New Mexico, four in Dona Ana County.  Small numbers, and I hope they stay small, obviously; but our local cases doubled each day -- despite limited testing, and (I hear) long lines of cars containing people who have reason to believe they should be tested.  ]

[ Can't say too often:
no need to shake hands!
wash hands frequently -- and well.  
"Your only enemy is your hand!" in the sense that if you don't touch mouth, nose, or eyes with unwashed hands, and don't stand in the path of someone's cough or sneeze, you are extremely unlikely to get this disease.  (CDC says no evidence of getting it from food service, so using drive-in take-out should be relatively safe.)  If you wash hands when you leave home, when you arrive from outside, and often at other times, you're doing a service to the community (not just yourself) because our greatest vulnerability is a whole bunch of people getting this virus at once.  (But remember, we still live in drought country, so after wetting your hands, please turn off the water while your hands rub each other, and only turn the water back on when you need to rinse.  Jeez, life is complicated!)]

[Here's something I hadn't known (although most serious people probably did!) about why soap works (courtesy of the NY Times Digest, 17 March): soap has a hyrdophilic (loves water) head and a hydrophobic (hates water) tail.  So when we wash our hands, soap molecules surround microorganisms on our skin with soap molecules.  The soap molecules' tails, trying to hide from the water, wedge themselves into certain microbes and, like crowbars, pry them apart, rendering them powerless -- while other molecules weaken the chemical bond through which the virus clings to our skin, so that rinsing sends them down the drain.  Seems like a miracle.  
No one knows when people first figured out soap, or whether it came accidentally from sacrificing animals or cooking vegetables, but in the 1840's a Hungarian doctor, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, noticed that when doctors washed their hands before operating, far fewer women died after childbirth.  Other doctors ridiculed the notion, and ostracized Semmelweis, who was tossed into an asylum, where he was severely beaten, and died from infected wounds.  That'll teach him!  Sic semper innovators!] 
[Keep safe and well -- and enjoy this crazy moment, despite all its bad effects on most of us!  Don't let all this stress you more than it has to.]
[P.S.: A slightly smaller Farmers' Market (no crafts and souvenirs, but some healthy, tasty, fresh local vegetables and such!) is ongoing Saturday mornings (8-1) in the Plaza.  We bicycle over there each Saturday morning.  Great food, supporting those vendors is important, the food's fresher and healthier than most food, and carrying your own bag outdoors beats pushing a shopping cart indoors.]

Coronavirus - Why We Might Need a Functional Government

Coronavirus pushed aside my draft columns about Biden-Sanders and the latest local guardianship hearing.

The virus has upended all our lives. As if we felt great but had been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, everything is the same but different. We are uncertain, sluggish, a bit dazed. The garden is sunny and peaceful, yet everything feels strangely ominous. Each of us contradicting today something we said yesterday. So are most of our leaders. 

 

I don’t know how our social/medical landscape will look in May. I hope the fears and dire predictions are exaggerated. And Coronavirus isn’t Donald Trump’s fault.

But the U.S. response has been slow and underwhelming, more like Italy’s disastrous hesitation than like South Korea’s coherent approach. This incompetence in a crisis might even bring home to folks the dangers of leaving the ship of state unhelmed. 

 

We had a unit to foresee pandemics and jump-start a response. It was probably not adequate. But the Trump Administration abandoned it. Trump’s proposed budget savaged the BioShield account – set up more than ten years ago so the government could fund research on pharmaceutical responses to a pandemic or biological attack. But there’s nothing politically sexy about health preparedness.

For months, experts predicted Covid-19 would reach the U.S. Trump downplayed its significance, and misleadingly minimized the numbers. To oversee our response, he appointed Mike Pence, the failed Indiana politician he’d made Vice-President. A cartoonist should draw Trump standing smugly on a wharf, while a huge wave labeled “coronavirus” looms behind him. 

 

After one recent meeting, Trump Administration figures revealed that finally Trump had focused on the problem, rather uttering disconnected discourses on his popularity or the evil Democrats. However, he refused Republican Senators’ request to let scientist Anthony Fauci direct the government’s response. That same day, Pence contradicted scientists’ advice by bragging that he was still shaking people’s hands. That night, an NBA player who had mocked the “panic” by touching microphones and recording devices after his press conference became the league’s first Covid-19 case. Trump joked that he might be resistant to the virus because his uncle was a super-genius who taught at MIT. Officials running our national response to a pandemic oughtta be smarter than a twentyish ballplayer.

Trump’s non-response to coronavirus symptomizes his approach to government: he attacks lower-level functionaries who’ve served Democratic and Republican Presidents for decades, hollowing out whole agencies; he clamps the Presidential hand over scientists’ mouths; if he can’t make some agency further his political fortunes or burnish his image, he destroys it; and his go-to response to questions is to attack critics and ramble on and on about Trumpian greatness. His nationwide address this week blamed other countries and wrongly claimed there’s little risk for Americans.

This won’t change. For many reasons – anger about globalism, distaste for Hillary, distaste for abortion, fear of having guns confiscated, a sense that things are going downhill for the country or for white men, and concern that dealing with climate-change might curtail corporate profits – we have elected a toddler-in-chief. Whatever the justifications for electing him in 2016, we can’t we afford four more years’ of watching the weeds grow in the doorways of government.

Is it bad taste to mention pandemics and politics right now? Maybe. If we were bailing your rowboat, I wouldn’t waste energy cursing you for not having plugged the leaks; but if you were steering us into an iceberg, I might holler.

                                                                – 30 --

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 15 March 2020, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website.  The corresponding radio commentary will air during the week on both KRWG and on KTAL-LP, 101.5 FM (www.lccommunityradio.org), and will also be available at on KRWG's site.]

[Added late:
NOTE:This just in: KTAL's "Speak Up, Las Cruces!" (8-10 a.m. Wednesdays, on 101.5 FM (or stream at the Las Cruces Community Radio site above) will focus on our current situation, with discussions with health officials, public officials, a couple of economists, and otherss -- including callers at 526-KTAL (5825), but IN ADDITION I'm almost certain we'll start Monday with a half-hour special update, and do those each Monday - Wednesday - Friday at 9 (although I guess Wednesday's will be a portion of our "Speak Up, Las Cruces!" show, repeating later in the day.  Check our website or Facebook page for details!
Click HERE for a neat graphical explanation (simulation) of how moves like quarantines, social distancing, and having a significant portion of citizens just stay home can affect the curve (how fast we get to 0 cases to millions); and the curve is important because if Las Cruces has 20,000 cases in a month, the health-care system is completely overwhelmed and more people die simply because of the crowding or the lack of doctors or ventilators -- or, as in Italy, they simply don't bother with folks over a certain age!  On the other hand, 20,000 cases over six months could be fatal to far fewer people -- although I'm not sure how the impact on the economy varies with these scenarios.
Watching these simulations, particularly the "social distancing," helps make the important point that staying at home the most you can and washing hands often, etc., may not keep you 100% safe, but by doing it you contribute to flattening the curve, keeping the most people healthy we can, and perhaps helping ensure there's a doctor or hospital bed if/when YOU need one.]

[btw, if anyone thinks it's bad taste to discuss the political implications of this crisis, please note that Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed it on Barack Obama.]

[Friday just as I opened my email program to send this column to the Sun-News, I had an email forwarding to me a Washington Post Op-Ed piece by Beth Cameron, the woman who ran the White House National Security Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense -- entitled, not surprisingly, The Federal Government Is Moving too Slowly, due to Lack of Leadership.  Ms. Cameron had run the office when it was established in 2014, after the Ebola epidemic.

[Ms. Cameron "was mystified when the White House dissolved the office, leaving the country less prepared for pandemics like covid-19."  She added:

"The U.S. government’s slow and inadequate response to the new coronavirus underscores the need for organized, accountable leadership to prepare for and respond to pandemic threats. 
"In a health security crisis, speed is essential. When this new coronavirus emerged, there was no clear White House-led structure to oversee our response, and we lost valuable time. . . . The specter of rapid community transmission and exponential growth is real and daunting. The job of a White House pandemics office would have been to get ahead: to accelerate the response, empower experts, anticipate failures, and act quickly and transparently to solve problems. 
". . . Our job was to be the smoke alarm — keeping watch to get ahead of emergencies, sounding a warning at the earliest sign of fire — all with the goal of avoiding a six-alarm blaze.
"My office was also tasked with preparing , . . . for the next health emergency, no matter its origin. In 2014, even before the first cases of Ebola came to light in Guinea, the Obama administration launched the Global Health Security Agenda, which now includes more than 60 countries, to accelerate epidemic preparedness. That effort, bolstered by $1 billion from the U.S. government in an emergency spending bill to fight Ebola, led to major gains in global capability to combat the Ebola outbreak and prepare for the next pandemic, which turned out to be covid-19. We began building, measuring and tracking capacities each country had, such as the strength of their national laboratory systems and their abilities to detect and report disease, stand up emergency operation centers, build an epidemiology workforce and maintain safe and secure practices. We spurred the use of transparent, measurable assessments of progress, and we leveraged our diplomacy with other countries to finance and fill gaps. At the same time, we strengthened international biosurveillance networks to help alert us to future potential pandemics."]

[A frequent correspondent replied by email to my column early this morning with this advice:

Well stated.  Sometimes I suspect we're in a toilet that was flushed several decades ago and now find ourselves in that "final spin" before we're shoved into the sewer pipe of history.

Still, my dad had (as usual) an apt proverb:  You can either play with the toys you have, or whine about the ones you don't have....do whichever is the most fun.  Turns out that it's best to play with what you have and make the best of it.  In my mind, we need to devote our strongest effort to encouraging our local citizenry, including elected officials, to  focus on actually developing an economic system based upon Maslow's hierarchy.  With that economic base we can do what we need locally to take care of most problems.  Schools, healthcare, housing, food, clothing....whatever the necessity can be dealt with locally if we set our minds and hearts to it.  We may be on our last legs as an empire, but we needn't be on our death bed as a community.

Take care.]

Common Sense advice from an expert on coronavirus.

[I am republishing here a communication from a doctor who clearly knows the subject.  Some of it has become common knowledge since I first received it.  One further point, regarding services: I have heard through a nurse we know that the virus can last for 7-9 days on glass or plastic, but only for quite shorter periods on many other surfaces; and, not unexpectedly, chlorine (as in pools) kills the virus immediately.]

Dear Colleagues, as some of you may recall, when I was a professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego, I was one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses (the 1970s). I was the first to demonstrate the number of genes the virus contained. Since then, I have kept up with the coronavirus field and its multiple clinical transfers into the human population (e.g., SARS, MERS), from different animal sources. The current projections for its expansion in the US are only probable, due to continued insufficient worldwide data, but it is most likely to be widespread in the US by mid to late March and April.

Here is what I have done and the precautions that I take and will take. These are the same precautions I currently use during our influenza seasons, except for the mask and gloves.:

1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.
2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.
3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip - do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors.
4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.
5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been.
6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home's entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can't immediately wash your hands.
7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!
What I have stocked in preparation for the pandemic spread to the US:
1) Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.
Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average - everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon. This virus only has cell receptors for lung cells (it only infects your lungs) The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth.
2) Stock up now with disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth (We touch our nose/mouth 90X/day without knowing it!). This is the only way this virus can infect you - it is lung-specific. The mask will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth - it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.
3) Stock up now with hand sanitizers and latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family). The hand sanitizers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.
4) Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY "cold-like" symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available. 

I, as many others do, hope that this pandemic will be reasonably contained, BUT I personally do not think it will be. Humans have never seen this snake-associated virus before and have no internal defense against it. Tremendous worldwide efforts are being made to understand the molecular and clinical virology of this virus. Unbelievable molecular knowledge about the genomics, structure, and virulence of this virus has already been achieved. BUT, there will be NO drugs or vaccines available this year to protect us or limit the infection within us. Only symptomatic support is available. I hope these personal thoughts will be helpful during this potentially catastrophic pandemic. You are welcome to share this email. 

Good luck to all of us!
James Robb, MD FCAP

xx

Thoughts on the Las Cruces City Manager Search

Both Interim Manager Bill Studer and Assistant City Manager David Dollahon survived the cut from ten to five candidates for Las Cruces City Manager.

Some city employees want anybody but these two. Former manager Stuart Ed had a dictatorial management style. He allegedly made some questionable choices, and insisted the City follow them. That’s no fun for employees. Some say Studer and Dollahon facilitated some of Ed’s missteps – and that damaged employee morale would heal best in a wholly fresh environment. 

 

But one employee told me Dollahon deserved the job, because he’d been here thirty years and knew everything, and that although some find him abrasive, “David is fair with the people who work hard.” Dollahon certainly does know city government here. 

 

Should it matter that in 2013, when his city computer picked up a virus, the IT people discovered that for three years Dollahon had spent a lot of time at work reviewing pornographic websites? He made “consistent, repeated, and sustained,” misuse of his city computer, reflecting “flagrant disregard for city policy.” This exposed the computer to the virus; and we weren’t paying him to watch porn. After inspecting his hard drive, LCPD determined that he hadn’t committed criminal activity. Dollahon was allowed “to take unpaid leave” for three days of his choice. (I hadn’t mentioned this situation before; but it seems relevant to his candidacy, though it shouldn’t dominate the discussion. Dollahon politely refused to discuss his candidacy with me.)

People associate Studer with Ed, which wouldn’t help him convince employees his was a truly new regime. People quote him as saying he doesn’t believe humankind is causing climate change. Our City Council, most citizens, and the vast weight of scientific investigation say otherwise. The Southwest is a climate-change hot spot. Studer said Friday, “humans are having an impact, I’m just not sure of the magnitude of that impact.”

Former County Manager (and recently-former Sunland Park City Manager) Julia Brown didn’t make the second cut. She’s smart and professional. I’ve criticized and praised her. The County firing her means nothing. A new commission majority, including two new members allegedly in Sheriff Kiki Vigil’s orbit, fired her; and her legal settlement exceeded $500K. 

 

Although I like and respect Brown, I understand the Council’s doubts. Managers must please an ever-shifting set of elected officials who are rarely experts. Officials’ instincts don’t always serve the city’s needs. “Independence” is an admirable character trait that councilors might not love in a city manager. It’s tough to steer the right course among competing interests, or between instructions and good sense, tactfully. 

 

I do think the Council may have missed a potential star in Len Sossaman. None of us are particularly looking for a gray-bearded white guy from the Southeast; but in going beyond the resumes and news stories and talking to some folks, I was impressed. I think he speaks frankly to his bosses, but with minimal abrasiveness, and tends to inspire employees, rather than shout “my way or the highway.” The quality of admiration and respect I heard in some voices moved me. I’ll bet you a beer he makes someone a hell of a city manager.

Also under consideration are Los Lunas Village Administrator Greg Martin and two promising younger people who’ve not yet been a city or county manager: Verónica Soto (San Antonio) and Kenneth Young (Loudoun County, Virginia). I don’t yet know enough about the three to offer an opinion.

                                                  – 30 --

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 8 March 2020, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website KRWG's website.  A spoken version will air during the week on both KRWG and KTAL, 101.5 FM (www.lccommunityradio.org).  That spoken version will also be on KRWG's website -- but not until later or tomorrow, because of the press of other work this weekend.]

[Sorry, I'm moving kind of slowly this morning.  It's been a very full week, and we spent hours last night enjoying the songs of our new friend John T. Davis, "the Belfast cowboy," a filmmaker and musician who visited this week, along with poet Kathleen McCracken, whom we heard read a week or so earlier.  John played  at Vintage Wines in Mesilla, along with Russ Bradburd and David   .   Those who weren't there (which is almost everyone) missed a very enjoyable evening.]

[Should briefly mention an upcoming event.  This Wednesday, 11 March, at 5:50 p.m. on the third floor of Zuhl Library on the NMSU campus, 

Title is "Will Local News Survive? -- a Discussion of Journalism's Future" -- which is obviously timely as newspapers disappear like some endangered species, Internet sites (some full of ideological or partisan screeds masquerading as factual news stories or fair commentary) rush in to fill the void, and our own local daily newspaper downsizes almost daily?  This is a real and important problem.

Excellent panel includes Walt Rubel, Algernon D'Ammassa, Susan Dunlap of New Mexico Political Report, and Kathleen Sloan, who publishes the on-line newspaper the Sierra County

Kathleen Sloan

Sun.  Who's better-positioned than Ms. Sloan to discuss what to do when your community newspaper disappears -- or when it's controlled by someone who also has a lot of control over the city government?  She can also talk about why she does what she does and how challenging it can be!  Walt, of course, has been a journalist here for a very long time, much of that time with the Las Cruces Sun-News (and does two shows on KTAL-LP, 101.5 FM); and Algernon reports for the Sun-News now. Because Walt's a panelist, I'll be moderating the event this year.]

Amazed yet again by Donald Trump, I asked some Trump-capped acquaintances at the Farmers’ Market what they thought.

U.S. Intelligence says Putin is again trying to tip our electoral scales in Russia’s favor. That’s a security issue, whatever your politics. Trump scoffed, then sacked his own appointed acting head of intelligence for reporting to Congress as he’s required to do. Trump then installed a shill with no intelligence qualifications. 

You’d sure think a patriot, of any party, would be concerned. Yet many erstwhile patriots seem blissfully unconcerned about Trump’s damage to the State Department and U.S. intelligence.

First guy I asked said frankly, “I’m so into what Trump’s doing that I can’t even think about that. He’s the greatest President we’ve had in a very long time.” I thanked him as he ran off.

Second said Trump was doing wonderful things, and questioned my facts as to the new intelligence chief’s complete lack of qualifications. He had to run, but agreed we could talk again later. We will.

A friend asked why I’d even tried to talk to the Trump fans. Quoting Ezra Klein’s interesting new book, Why We’re Polarized, he pointed out that I’d never convince them because their (and possibly our) political thoughts are so inextricably bound up with our feelings about who we are that emotions won’t let the mind analyze facts dispassionately. 

(He also asked whether the first guy’s response hurt my feelings or irritated me. No. That gentleman was frank. He also spared both of us a lame effort at communicating, which was not going to be feasible this time around.)

Without questioning the logic of all that, I’m just not in a position to be that . . . exclusive. I live in southern New Mexico, where we have (to outsiders’ surprise) a great variety of viewpoints and lively discussions about those views. I write a Sunday column and co-host a two-hour radio show on which we talk with folks. More, I live in a community; and in a community, folks kind of need each other sometimes.

So, yeah, I’ll keep listening, and keep engaging – courteously and openly – with folks who disagree with me. I don’t have the luxury of talking only with political allies. Nor would I want to. As a writer and citizen, I enjoy our diversity. I’m also well aware of my own fallibility.

Do I know the secret to helping folks who appreciate Donald Trump recognize how he endangers us? No. But I’m more likely to figure it out by trying than by ducking that problem. 

I hear, even from folks who believe as I do, some lies and honestly-believed myths. Some sources of working-class anger at the U.S. Government seem righteous. That even respected authorities on “my side” can be wrong teaches two lessons: to check our own facts carefully, constantly questioning our own beliefs; and to listen more carefully to people we disagree with. (It’s helpful to assume that those folks are not evil, but merely misinformed or duped.) As E.J. Dionne reminds us, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr advised us “to seek the truth in our opponent’s error, and the error in our own truth.”

Yeah, as Trump keeps doing things for the corporations and the wealthiest Americans, while painting himself as a regular guy, I sometimes imagine that people will see through him after awhile. Even ardent fans. But I’m not holding my breath.

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[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 1 March 2020, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website, and a spoken version will air during the week both on KRWG and on KTAL, 101.5 FM, Las Cruces Community Radio.]