COVID Update September 21: As the world approaches 1 million deaths, and the U.S. 200,000, where we go from here is the most important thing.

And there is a simple trick to slow and stop these deaths. 1/

Remember that after the Spanish flu which killed 50 million people a century ago, we have had respiratory viruses like the Asian flu in the 50s & Hong Kong flu in the 60s killed over a million people. The swine flu a decade ago almost 300,000. 2/

The difference with COVID-- very simply that it is happening in the U.S.

Imagine a world where 1 million people died of COVID outside of the U.S., but we were untouched. Would we have noticed? Cared? Done something? 3/

Before I answer, I remember that 700,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses last year, mostly outside the U.S. and that for much of the last number of years over 1 million have been dying every year. 4/

We are used to epidemics and pandemics in this world. But we are used to them happening to other people. And even the epidemic that we have had here-- AIDS-- has killed 675,000 people. But for many Americans who are not in high risk groups, it happened to "other" people. 5/

When something happens to other populations around the world-- or even here in the U.S.-- its as if it never happened unless people felt at risk. 6/

Much the same can be said about our response to COVID-19. We were at our best when we feared for ourselves. We stayed in, we didn't discuss herd immunity, we didn't have debates about the value of "old people." 7/

COVID disproportionately impacts people who can't escape it-- farmworkers, prisoners, homeless, Black/Brown communities at a higher rate, immunocompromised groups.

And so, if you don't happen to be in one of those groups you feel safer. 8/

We like being out of the disease chain. Its as if its not happening. And we are apparently ok being in the middle of the disease chain, passing it to others if we don't worry about being harmed ourselves. 9/

The whole way we look at the pandemic and its relationship to ourselves was one of the most fascinating parts of my conversation with @edyong209 here. http://smarturl.it/inthebubble .

If you don't read Ed religiously in @TheAtlantic too, you simply need to. But listen if you haven't.10/

So I promised you a "key" to not making that 200,000 become 300,000 or 400,000.

You expect me to say a mask. And that's the funny part to me. Everybody at this point knows what we need to do.

Apparently its not that simple.11/

A mask of course does 2 things. It protects the people in your vicinity and you from the virus. And, if we all do it, it reduces the spread and gets us back to normal more quickly. 12/

But if many people already feel safe, as we discussed above, why would they wear a mask?

I had this conversation with KY governor @AndyBeshearKY today. 13/

Beshear is one of the 2 highest rated governors when it comes to their COVID-19 response. He governs a state where he is in the minority party in a state relatively unhealthy. Given all of that results have been mercifully good so far w/ about 1000 deaths. 14/

Beshear says this our great generational challenge. Ask him what the key is to winning the war on the pandemic and he has an answer.

"We have to become the kindest generation," he hold me. 15/

In fact, we cannot possibly win without kindness.

(Yes we may be trapped in a bible story or an Aesop fable where after years of neglecting people who have been at risk, we now have to SEE them & care about them.) 16/

Like the bedtime stories we've all read to our kids, there are always 2 choices: in this case, the indifferent path where we let 200,000 become 300,000 or more & grow angry & resentful that it is robbing us of some of our life. 17/

That version has people yelling herd immunity or turning our backs or justifying suffering for others but not inconvenience for ourselves.

But the other choice is the easiest in the world. 18/

Its a choice we will not find on Twitter or Facebook or in most of the political rhetoric. It will come in the active doing.

Beshear said something else: "Its harder to ask people to do nothing than to do something." 19/

People will respond better to being asked to sew masks than to wear them. But Beshear believes we all have that decency in us. We are still the country that sent young people to Normandy where we lost 6600 on a single day.
20/

Does the 80 years that passed change our country so much that we can't get back to that. To the simplest thing in the world.

Caring about everyone who dies whether we know them or not. It feels hard because its new and it feels easy because we all know how. 21/

When we can make the journey from the Greatest Generation to the Kindest Generation, the virus won't stand a chance. /end