By
MARSHA MERCER
In a
presidential debate before the 1988 election, Vice President George Herbert
Walker Bush, the Republican nominee, was asked about heroes who could inspire
young people.
Dr.
Anthony Fauci, he said.
“You’ve
probably never heard of him. He’s a very fine researcher, top doctor at the
National Institute of Health, working hard doing something, research on this
disease of AIDS,” Bush said. C-SPAN found and posted the clip this week.
Today,
nearly everybody has heard of Fauci. The director of the Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases is a hero of the novel coronavirus crisis.
Fauci,
79, stands behind President Donald Trump at news conferences and, with grace
and courage, sets the record straight when Trump errs about the virus.
The coronavirus
and COVID-19, the disease it causes, have upended daily life, caused sickness, financial
hardship, fear, grief and more than 1,000 deaths nationwide.
The
crisis is also showing us the best in America. It has brought us together as we
stay apart to stop the spread of disease. And there are many other new heroes.
Often
standing near Fauci at news conferences is Dr. Deborah Birx, 63, who was U.S. global
AIDS coordinator in the State Department until the White House picked her to be
the coronavirus response coordinator.
Her calm
presentations are professional, reassuring and personal. Urging young people to
practice social distancing, she told of her grandmother’s lifelong guilt after as
a child she brought home the Spanish flu that killed her mother.
“My
grandmother lived with that for 88 years
. . . this is not a theoretical. This is a reality,” Birx said.
Another hero
to many is New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has shown
extraordinary leadership and empathy.
Cuomo calmly
and clearly explains in daily news conferences how New York became the
epicenter of the outbreak and how the state and the country can get through the
crisis.
He reminds
New Yorkers and all of us to thank those who put their lives on the line when
they go to work.
“Our
health care workers, who are doing God’s work. . . Can you imagine the nurses who leave their
homes in the morning, who kiss their children goodbye, go to a hospital, put on
gowns, deal with people who have the coronavirus?” Cuomo said at Tuesday’s
briefing.
“You
want to talk about extraordinary individuals. And it’s the nurses and the
doctors and the health care workers. It’s the police officers who show up every
day . . . And it’s the firefighters and it’s the transportation workers, and
it’s the people who are running the grocery stores and the pharmacies and
providing all those essential services.”
Many are
finding ways to help. In Virginia, when Gov. Ralph Northam asked for volunteers
for the Virginia Medical Reserve Corps, more than 1,500 health professionals
signed up in a month. On Wednesday, Northam asked for more volunteers.
At least
half a dozen Virginia distilleries have shifted from producing whisky and other
libations to hand sanitizer. Bakeries donate fresh bread to food banks.
Amy and Jeremy
Filko of Vienna, Virginia, are using 3-D printing to make plastic shields to
protect N95 masks, Washingtonian magazine reported.
The
Filkos send four free masks to doctors, nurses and health care workers who
request them through their Facebook page and cover the shipping costs
themselves. They also are sharing the technology
with others who want to make shields, as long as they agree to provide the
shields free.
To this
group of everyday heroes, I would add blood donors, neighbors who shop for
others, delivery people, sanitation workers, mail carriers, cashiers -- and the
people who cover the news day in, day out.
In this
time of rampant misinformation on social media and mostly unfounded criticism
of reporters by the president and his fans, we need solid, fact-based reporting
more than ever.
News organizations
face grave financial challenges, and with continued layoffs and cutbacks work
harder to do more with less. There’s never been a better time to subscribe to a
local newspaper in print or online.
And, as we
keep our distance, we can still smile and say, “Thank you,” to all the unsung
heroes of this crisis.
©2020 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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