The business side of the story went from feel-good schmaltz to unbridled dank vulture capitalism at warp speed. It says something that every system that’s critical to a strong response is currently run as an extraction machine and has been for a decade.

Juxtapose: cute photos of small-lot homemade masks with global bidding wars and near-piracy over medical grade PPE among state and non-state actors.

Juxtapose: Heart-rending photos of nurses at the edge of their capacity and PE firms behind hospitals making calculated bailout grabs while furloughing non-clinical staff.

Juxtapose: Individuals buying restaurant gift certificates with someone like Gary Cohn presuming to deliver high minded lectures about oversight of *small-business* loans.

Everything sweet and life-affirming in the business response is a feel-good ineffectual favela chic hopepunk sideshow theater. Everything substantively driving the main act is grimdark gothic high-tech extractive profiteering by cartoon vulture capitalist ops.