Mr. President, we don’t want this. We don’t want the endless listing of statistics out of context spun only for self-aggrandizement. We don’t want your smug self-satisfaction that you are doing a “heck of a job” with all aspects of this virus. We don’t want the lies about snake oil cures from a snake oil salesman. We don’t want you using the bully pulpit as a bully to demonstrate your virility through personal attacks at journalists’ questions (all too often mocking the “nasty” questions of women). We don’t want you taking credit for every recovery and shifting blame for every death. Most of all, we don’t want you talking about your television ratings and comparing them to MNF or The Bachelor!
Oddly, the person whom you could turn to for words at this time is someone in your own circle whom I quite frankly despise for his callous embrace of your sideshow and strides to drive the carnival wagon. Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, hired gun, tough guy, abuser of law and propriety, probably criminal, once said the right thing. In a press conference soon after the attack on the World Trade Center, when asked about the number of casualties, he simply said that they “will be more than any of us can bear.”
That simple statement, without bombast or politics or details, says more about what we are feeling now than any statistics, excuses, or political spin. Virtually everyone in this country is hurting all the time either from direct loss of friends or relatives, loss of job, loss of plans, loss of future, loss of hope. Hurting is almost all we do these days. So say it, say this hurts and people are hurting more than anyone can know or quantify or defend or bear.
And then step away from the microphone and let Fauci talk.
Be safe, be strong.