I’m taking to twitter to vent some fury. The Trump administration has caused needless death and illness on top of what would have been a heavy toll anyway. Their willingness to kill and sicken people sets a horrible tone. 1/

People from whom I would have expected better now feel free to say, “We can’t promise to eliminate all risk…” as preface to advocating and ordering very risky steps in the face of a pandemic. 2/

Framing the desire for life-and-health-preserving precautions in the face of a disease whose treatment can be traumatic even when successful as a desire for “no risk” is an insidious trivialization of the danger. 3/

Those advocating relatively high levels of social interaction not only imperil us, they make actual planning for productivity of any kind a farce. 4/

If people are gathered on campuses, in stores, in places of worship, etc. etc., deaths and illness will ramp up. Sick and dying people cannot work or study; and those who love them will struggle too. 5/

Between the lies the President tells about SARS-CoV-2 and he and his Cabinet’s privileging of corporate wealth, they have licensed people to ignore the actual additional, serious suffering that comes with “re-opening”. 6/

It is now becoming an act of bravery to question whether non-essential gatherings are really worth extra deaths and illness. This is crazy. 7/

When people compare various reopening scenarios to driving, remember this: many millions of dollars have been invested in making driving safer, not just by making cars more crashworthy, but by implementing laws to reduce drunk driving. 8/

Precisely because driving endangers health and safety, it is a highly regulated and policed activity. Are those touting it as the model for gathering during a pandemic as urging that degree of regulation and policing for this gathering? 9/

Safety in the face of an infectious disease is necessarily a social and collective effort. Right now, we are enduring political leaders and employers who refuse to take responsibility for this. I’m disgusted and furious. I’m not going to docilely act like I’m not. 10/10