"Taking Stock" of COVID 19 and the American Election.

Certain events recently have made me “take stock.” Taking stock being “to think carefully about a situation or event and form an opinion about it, so that you can decide what to do.”

The COVID 19 pandemic made me take stock like many other people on the planet. Those who refused to take stock have caused harm to both themselves and others. Part of taking stock is wearing a mask, social distancing, washing your hands and avoiding crowds and by extension, not travelling abroad as has been recommended by the Canadian government. With these warnings in mind, my wife and I took stock but we still decided to visit our daughter and her husband in Greece. Not impressive, right?

 

You may wonder, why Greece? You see, my daughter and her husband live in the U.K. If we were to visit them there, we would have to quarantine for 2 weeks which was about the length of time we planned to be away. A visit in their apartment for a few days would have been nice but two weeks? Maybe not.

Greece is also really beautiful.

So, we looked for a place where neither couple would have to quarantine upon arrival and my daughter’s husband wouldn’t have to quarantine upon his return. You see, he’s a teacher who had a couple of weeks of holiday at the end of October and needed to go right back into the classroom. Working from home wasn’t an option for him.

Us at the Acropolis

 

COVID cases in Greece were low compared to Canada. It was the plane and the airport that worried me. My wife assured me that few cases had been recorded as having been transmitted in an airplane which was empty from Calgary to Amsterdam. Schiphol Airport was practically empty but the plane from there to Athens was packed. Nicola was tested for COVID before entering the country as was our daughter’s husband. Suffice it to say, they were both negative.

The customs area at Schiphol on the way over. 

We were surprised to find a crowded Schiphol Airport upon our return. I stood nervously in line for close to an hour to clear customs. Nicola hypothesized that people were racing home before many countries went into lockdown as was what happened in the U.K. two days after our return.

 

I felt more comfortable on the near empty return flight to Calgary until Nicola checked the Canadian website for an update of possible COVID cases on this same flight. To our chagrin, someone on the flight had contracted the disease and passengers Rows 17 to 23 were at increased risk and should monitor for symptoms. I said we were in Row 23. Nicola disagreed. Then, she checked her email from the airline and discovered that 23A had been her seat.

 

Now, we had to take stock. Was it possible that we’d contracted the disease? The plane was practically empty. We were sitting in two seats against the window and there was no one in the centre four seats beside me. A young guy sat at the window in front of us and a young woman across the aisle from him. A couple sat behind us but that was Row 24. For about half the flight, I had lain down on centre aisle seats at the back of the plane. Upon reflection, the odds of us getting the virus on that plane seemed remote. Nevertheless, we’ve definitely taken stock and we've taken the two week quarantine upon our return home very seriously.

 

For a number of reasons, I found myself taking stock when Donald Trump garnered nearly half the votes in the recent presidential election. After all, this was the guy who used the phrase, “Grab them by the pussy,” Talked about Mexicans not sending their best, bringing drugs, and crime, and raping."  Of course, he assumed that some were "good people.”  

 

Jane Mayer of the New Yorker Magazine describes Trump as a guy who “has famously survived one impeachment, two divorces, six bankruptcies, twenty-six accusations of sexual misconduct, and an estimated four thousand lawsuits.” And his list of lies numbers in the tens of thousands, the latest, of course, being his claim about the illegality of absentee voting.

The Donald just before announcing his candidacy. 

 

His reaction to the COVID pandemic probably resulted in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths in the United States. The New Times has estimated that the U.S. has had 9.9 million cases with almost 240,000 deaths. According to worldmeters.info, that’s about 30,742 cases per million or 734 deaths per million. The same numbers for Canada are 6,904 cases per million and 277 deaths per million. If the U.S. had responded to the virus at least as well as Canada, it should have had less than half the number of cases and deaths as its presently experiencing. Here’s the kicker though, of the 376 counties in the U.S. with the highest number of new COVID cases, 93% voted primarily for Trump. Go figure, right? His policies kill my grandma or my friend’s great-uncle and I’ll still vote for him. Makes one pause, or “take stock” so to speak.

 

Equally surprising was the fact that his racist comments about the Hispanic people and his condemnation of those participating in Black lives matter did not negatively impact the support he got from members of these communities. His racist comments about the Hispanic population and his refusal to support African Americans after Charlottesville and after the murder by police of George Floyd. In 2016, 13 percent of African Americans voted for Trump; in 2020, that number rose to 18%.1   In Florida, Trump captured 35% of the vote in 2016. That number rose fo almost 50% in 2020. He even gained the support of Latinos living along the U.S.- Mexican border. He captured the county of Zapita along the Rio Grande with its majority Hispanic population. The same county Hillary Clinton took by a margin of 2 to 1 in 2016. And get this, about 40% of Latino Americans are in favour of the wall.

 

The reaction of the LGBTQ community also shocked me. Their vote for Trump jumped from 14% in 2016 to 28% in 2020. In September, the gay social network, Hornet, found in a survey of 10,000 users of its users that 45% planned to vote for Trump.

 

So, both COVID and the American election have made me take stock. With respect to COVID, even with a vaccine, I’ll still fanatically wash my hands and social distance and may even wear a mask when I’m in crowded areas such as an airplane or airports when transferring between flights in foreign countries.

 

I haven’t come to any conclusions about the American election. All I can say is that it’s made me take stock. But, up to this point in time, I haven't come up with any conclusions.