“The Coronavirus Matters. The Stock Market Doesn’t,” noted the intercept.com. Trump and his disciples obviously disagree.
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In the age of coronavirus, some of the few recommendations come too naturally to me: drink lots of liquid and avoid crowds. Still, it’s all I can do to resist touching every one of the Charlestown Bells by Paul Matisse.
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In February 2020, a Gallup Poll reported “High Confidence in Government to Handle Coronavirus … Three in four Americans are confident in the U.S. government’s ability to handle a coronavirus outbreak—a higher level of confidence than Gallup has recorded for previous health scares.” I tweeted: “Always interesting when trusted poll results fly in the face of everything you read.”
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Same month I reported that panelists at NEBHE’s fall 2019 roundtable noted that recessions can result from global market downturns or be sparked by outside geopolitical events as in case of the Gulf War or subprime mortgage crisis. The #COVID19 pandemic was not yet on the radar screen.
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On Massachusetts primary day, Secretary of State William Galvin said voters can also bring their own pens—as long as the ink is not red—to cast their ballots.
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It fell to me (briefly anyway) to pilot NEBHE’s “communications” response to coronavirus. We urged readers to send related news to nejhe@nebhe.org for our vetting and possible posting to nebhe.org. A regular NEJHE contributor Karen Gross wrote an interesting piece on how coronavirus triggers trauma in college students.
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After much resistance to the trend of working remotely, my organization announced it would shift to virtual work “out of an abundance of caution.”
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Around the same time, Nick Martin wrote a piece in The New Republic, noting: “For those with the privilege and ability to conduct their work from home, the coming weeks should be a time to focus on ourselves, our communities, and our loved ones. It should be a time to do nothing and produce little without the accompanying feeling of guilt or panic caused by a ping from a higher-up that you should be doing more as the rest of your world slowly cranks to a halt.”
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In March, the Pentagon announced new travel restrictions on employees, including service members and their families. Peace at last, I wondered?
