This piece by #GeorgePacker in @TheAtlantic is a masterpiece. It opens like this: “When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and it exploited them ruthlessly." 1/ . https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/underlying-conditions/610261/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/underlying-conditions/610261/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

"Chronic ills—a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public—had gone untreated for years. We had learned to live, uncomfortably, with the symptoms." 2/

"It took the scale and intimacy of a pandemic to expose their severity—to shock Americans with the recognition that we are in the high-risk category." 3/

"The crisis demanded a response that was swift, rational, and collective. The United States reacted instead like Pakistan or Belarus—like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering." 4/

"The administration squandered two irretrievable months to prepare. From the president came willful blindness, scapegoating, boasts, and lies. From his mouthpieces, conspiracy theories and miracle cures." 5/

"A few senators and corporate executives acted quickly—not to prevent the coming disaster, but to profit from it. When a government doctor tried to warn the public of the danger, the White House took the mic and politicized the message." 6/

This is how the piece ends: "We can learn from these dreadful days that stupidity and injustice are lethal; that, in a democracy, being a citizen is essential work; that the alternative to solidarity is death." 7/

"After we’ve come out of hiding and taken off our masks, we should not forget what it was like to be alone." end/