The humbling of America - five months and counting
Our response to the Covid19 pandemic has been the worst in the world, with little hope in the weeks ahead.
Our dog, Tara (@The.Tara on IG), can curl up and pretend everything is OK. But we can’t hide; we need to face facts. This newsletter is produced w/ Zach Peterson (@zachprague).
Scroll down for Read Something; Watch Something; Tech Tips; and a weekly tech tip from Robert S. Anthony (@newyorkbob).
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The last 150 days have seen the humbling of America. The wars in Vietnam and Iraq stand out as colossal failures on so many levels, but nothing like that has happened in my lifetime.
The United States is a pariah state. This morning, on my #NYTReadalong, Elaine Sciolino (@ElianeSciolino), former NYT Paris bureau chief, reminded me no Americans are allowed into France. I was vaguely aware, but hearing it directly like that was jarring.
This piece from David Leonhardt and Lauren Leatherby paints a remarkably depressing—in fact, deadly— picture of a crisis that, while likely not completely avoidable, certainly didn’t have to come to this.
There is so much in here to chew on and be angry about, but it really boils down to a pretty simple thing: Expertise and how to use it.
In no other high-income country — and in only a few countries, period — have political leaders departed from expert advice as frequently and significantly as the Trump administration. President Trump has said the virus was not serious; predicted it would disappear; spent weeks questioning the need for masks; encouraged states to reopen even with large and growing caseloads; and promoted medical disinformation.
The failure of political leadership in Washington, DC, is just part of the picture. We are also witnessing the failure of leadership in multiple states, cities and towns. And no public rebukes - let alone resignations - from leading members of this administration.
Several catastrophic failures are converging at once:
The failures of “big tech.” I don’t mean all the VCs on Twitter who, for the last two decades, have pronounced the end of all things bad because of some sort of tech solution. I’m talking about the fact that the major platforms aren’t firmly tackling the spread of misinformation online. Twitter actually does seem to care, but they are still lagging (more on that below in “Listen to Something”).
The failures of the media. This is more complicated because there is a wealth of truly outstanding journalism right now. But there remains an underlying urge to normalize Donald Trump’s behavior — and the behavior of the vast majority of GOP politicians who act either in concert with him, or, somehow, manage to be actually worse than him. There is, of course, no single thing called “The Media,” as Prof. Jon Marshall of the Medill School at Northwestern explained to me yesterday on “Coping w/ Covid19: A Helpful, Hopeful Call-in Show,” my weekly radio show on WBAI, 99.5FM in NYC). But, collectively, too many media outlets have added to the confusion - and the death toll - as explained in a Sunday Note from April.
The failure of systems. There was a breakdown in basic systems - emergency preparedness, healthcare, finance and more - we needed to stay safe and keep the economy afloat.
The failure to take care of essential workers. Frontline workers, first responders, healthcare workers, teachers, food and produce workers, logistics….the list goes on and on. There have been countless tragedies, but we have failed the people who risked it all to go to work to save lives, keep food on the shelves, and teach our kids as best they could. The ways we are failing them - by not wearing masks, going out as if it’s all better, underpaying them, and under-insuring them - make me mad.
America votes in 86 days. I believe the future of the planet is at stake, and we have less than three months to get our act together and vote the administration out of office. I’m not one of these people who thinks that electing Joe Biden will be a cure-all; in fact, it likely won’t be. But, in terms of Covid19, I have the utmost confidence that a Biden White House would have a robust strategy for testing, mask policies, medical bills, rent control, unemployment benefits and more. I think they would take it seriously, work with other countries, and actually acknowledge the toll the virus has taken on America.
We are years away from normalcy no matter what happens on November 3rd, but re-electing this president would be a disaster that would reverberate all over the world.
- Sree
Read Something
The Atlantic has been fantastic over the last year or so. Ed Yong, a science writer there, wrote a cover story for the magazine that delves into what the last 150 days have done to America that is an absolute must-read. Read that, and then check out this thread where he shares several great resources on the Covid19 response in America.
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Tech Tips w/ @newyorkbob
Each week, veteran tech journalists Robert S. Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him on @newyorkbob.
Third time’s the charm? This week, Samsung released its third folding-screen phone, the Galaxy Z Fold2, but you’ll have to wait until Sept 1 for all the geeky details—including the price (the previous model started at almost $2,000). In addition to its 6.2-inch front display and three rear cameras, it opens to reveal a seamless 7.6-inch foldable ultra-thin glass (yes—not plastic) touchscreen with a video-friendly, fast 120MHz refresh rate.
A rather sophisticated hinge lets the Fold2’s screen hold steady at various positions and a 4,500 mAh battery promises solid talk and video time. So, is this a game-changer or an answer to a question no one asked? Stay tuned.
Listen to Something
The Daily with Michael Barbaro is perpetually great, and this interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is no different.
“Do you believe that you are one of the most powerful people on Earth right now?”
Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s C.E.O., was quick to deflect. “No,” he laughed. “Everything that has made Twitter powerful has come from the people using it.”
Decisions on content, moderation, and misinformation made by the Twitter team have real-world consequences and now those decisions are finally getting the level of scrutiny they deserve. But is it too late? Listen to the episode here and on all major podcast platforms.
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Watch Something
Reflecting on 150 days of pandemic, lockdown, government failures, inspirational stories, and everything in between this past week has been sobering. Amid the myriad failures in leadership, we’ve covered every aspect of the crisis on my show — economic, social, political, educational, the burden on essential workers — and we’ll continue to do. Thank you so much for watching, sharing, and joining these conversations. Some of our most memorable guests visited with us again - live or via video greeting, including Sunny Slaughter, Orin Davis, Alan Katz and more. Watch below or on this playlist.
Odds & Ends
🗞 My Sunday #NYTReadalong, executive produced by Neil Parekh (@neilparekh), where we read the print NYT out loud every week, 8:30-10:30 am ET: Our guest this week is bestselling author and former NYT Paris bureau chief Elaine Sciolino. Her newest book, The Seine: The River That Made Paris, is available in hardcover, and on Kindle and Audible. It comes out in paperback on Sept. 29. Catch it in my YouTube archives.
The Readalong is followed Sundays 11 am-noon ET by a new medical show I’m co-executive producing with surgeons Sujana Chandrasekhar, M.D. (@DrSujanaENT), and Marina Kurian, M.D. (@MarinaKurian), called She’s On Call (watch live or later).
The Sunday #NYTReadalong is sponsored by Muck Rack and Strategy Focused Group. Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email sree@sree.net and neil@neilparekh.org.
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