Be smart. Mask up! -- July 30, 2020 column

By MARSHA MERCER

Near a neighborhood park in Alexandria, a yard sign reads: “Don’t be Stupid. Make America Healthy Again. Wear a Facemask!”

The sign is bipartisan -- half blue and half red -- and diverse. At the bottom an assortment of faces wears masks.

Back home, Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, is on TV, telling me: “Wear a mask.”

“We have the power – the American people do – to slow the spread of this virus,” he said Thursday on NBC’s Today show.

All over social media, celebrities post selfies wearing masks and use the hashtag #wearadamnmask. It’s hard not to get the message.

More than 150,000 Americans have perished from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and more than 4.4 million people in the United States have been infected.

With the economy in distress, everyone wants to get to some sort of “new normal” life, whatever that may be, but the virus shows no sign of easing its vicious grip on the United States.

There’s no vaccine or treatment yet, and polls indicate many people worry a vaccine developed at “warp speed” may be unsafe. So states, companies and individuals hunker down.

Google announced Tuesday it would not bring employees back to their offices until next July at the earliest. It was the first big company to delay reopening that long but likely won’t be the last.

Meanwhile, the chasm grows between those who can safely work at home and those who must return to a dangerous workplace.

It would be easier to fight the disease if people broke out in a bright red coronavirus rash, but those without symptoms pass the disease to others.

And that’s why the tried-and-true advice for stopping the spread still holds. Wear a facial covering, keep six feet of social distance and wash hands frequently.

We know if we are asymptomatic and wear a mask, it helps protect others. If others also wear a mask, we protect each other.

Many stores, restaurants and other establishments now require customers to wear masks – for which millions of us are grateful. Don’t bother calling me a “sheeple,” easily led by the government. I’m not buying it.

Even President Donald Trump finally wore a mask. He says he usually doesn’t need one because he’s tested frequently, unlike most Americans. He and anyone he comes in close contact with receive their results quickly. Most Americans must wait days or a week for results, which renders contact tracing ineffective.

And that brings us to Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas. The anti-masker was tested Wednesday before he was supposed to fly on Air Force One with Trump.

When his test came back positive, Gohmert said he “can’t help but wonder” whether wearing a mask and taking it on and off somehow caused him to breathe in the virus.

“We don’t have any evidence that’s the case,” FDA’s Hahn said. “Our data show people should wear masks.”

Gohmert said he’s “all in” on hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug Trump has again been touting, despite it’s having been discredited by medical experts as a treatment for COVID-19. The drug can have serious side effects, affecting heart rhythms.

In the wake of Gohmert’s potentially infecting his staff and other members of Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered members to wear masks on the House floor except when recognized to speak.

I get that Americans hate being told what to do and masks – or their lack -- have become a political statement. We’ve seen the videos of unhinged people in stores going ballistic when asked to put on a mask.

But there’s no constitutional right to infect the front-line hero who rings up your chips and beer. It’s no show of personal liberty to infect your grandmother. Remember, 80% of the people who have died of COVID-19 are over 65.

Not wearing a mask is almost as dumb as attending a COVID-19 party because you think COVID is a hoax, as a 30-year-old man in Texas reportedly did. Shortly before he died of the disease, he told his nurse he’d made a mistake.

So, please be smart. Wear a mask. You might save someone’s life – and someone else might save yours.

©2020 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved. 30

The right thing: Protect frontline workers -- May 14, 2020 column

By MARSHA MERCER

It’s the least we can do.

We ask essential workers to fight the war on the novel coronavirus every day, even as the rest of us try to stay out of harm’s way.

The least we can do is give them the proper equipment them to do their work safely -- or as safely as possible under harrowing circumstances.

These heroic workers live with the fear they’ll bring the deadly virus home to their families and themselves, and, sadly, their fears are justified.

While no database records cases of COVID-19, the disease the coronavirus causes, among medical personnel, one small federal study found health care workers – including doctors, nurses, aides and janitors – account for about 20% of known COVID-19 cases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study also reported just 27 COVID-related deaths among medical personnel as of April 14, but noted the count was based on a survey of just 16% of all cases. The actual number of deaths is surely far higher.

Providing personal protective equipment (PPE) – masks, plastic shields, gloves and gowns – to essential workers has been spotty at best, with widespread shortages reported. Shortages are being exacerbated by unscrupulous suppliers flooding the United States with counterfeit equipment.

Millions of masks, gloves, gowns and other supplies in use in American hospitals are counterfeit, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

The tip-off N95 masks from China were fake, even though they appear to be certified as medical-grade by the U.S. government, was ear loops. Real N95 masks have bands that stretch around the head, not just the ears, to keep the masks in place.

There must be a special place in hell for people who profit by selling shoddy goods that risk lives. For now, the federal government is pursuing the perpetrators.

Operation Stolen Promise, led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, has netted 11 arrests and 519 seizures, AP reported.

“And yet counterfeit goods continue to pour in – not just masks, but also mislabeled medicines, and fake COVID-19 tests and cures,” according to the agency.

This is appalling news, but there are glimmers of hope. Some states seem to be meeting the formidable challenges.

Frontline workers in New York now test positive less often for antibodies to COVID-19 than the general public, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Wednesday.

“You know what that means? That means PPE works. Masks work. Gloves work. Hand sanitizing works,” Cuomo said.

“How do health care workers have a lower percentage of infection than the general population? Because people don’t wear these at home, and they don’t take the same precautions. But this works.”

The lower rate is significant because the largest nurses’ union in New York state had to go to court last month and sue the state health department and two hospitals, to force changes in protective procedures.

New York state, the epicenter of infection with nearly 350,000 confirmed cases, has seen significant improvement, enough to warrant reopening parts of the state.

Cuomo issued executive orders last month requiring all people in New York to wear masks or face coverings in public whenever social distancing – keeping six feet away from others -- was impossible, including on public or private transportation. He also ordered nursing home staff be tested for COVID-19 twice a week.

“This is a social exercise,” he said. “I believe in the people, and I believe when they have the right information and they trust the information and they know the information is actually factual as opposed to some type of political jargon, they will do the right thing. And they have.”

Face coverings are sensible, and the White House now requires staffers to wear them, even though President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence refuse.

Virginia recommends, but does not require, face coverings.

Coverings protect other people, not the wearer. If you are infected but asymptomatic and wear a mask or covering over your nose and mouth, you help stop the spread of disease.

“It says to other people, I respect you, I respect your family, I respect the work of our front-line heroes, the nurses . . . I wear this mask to protect you and your family because I respect you,” Cuomo said.

Show some respect? Yes, that’s the least we should do.  

©2020 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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What's the rush? Consumers rule -- May 7, 2020 column

By MARSHA MERCER

“We’re all in this together.”

Those encouraging words burble from politicians, TV commercials and the public address system in the supermarket as you survey still-empty shelves.

Are we in this together? Not really.

As COVID-19 ravages the country, with more than 1.2 million confirmed cases and more than 73,000 deaths, the disease disproportionately affects the elderly, people of color and the poor.

Meanwhile, the political chasm grows wider and deeper.

President Donald Trump and many Republican governors are pushing to reopen the economy – ignoring the White House’s own guidelines on how to do so safely.

The guidelines include a 14 day-trend of declining COVID-19 cases or of positive tests as a percent of tests. In more than half the states easing restrictions, both measures are trending upwards, not down, the New York Times reported.

But there are signs we’re in this together in one way. Most Americans are united around an idea: Don’t rush to reopen. Do it right.

The angry protesters who demand their states be “liberated” get oodles of news coverage, but they are a minority. Most Americans say they are willing to stay home and observe social distancing a while longer. To do otherwise is to court later waves of disease and future lockdowns, which could be disastrous.

Many recent polls have found a strong majority of Americans want the government to slow the spread of the virus first, even if the economy is hurt in the short run. Rather than pretending everything is fine, elected officials should respond accordingly.

Two-thirds of people say they would be uncomfortable shopping at a retail clothing store and nearly eight in 10 said they would be uncomfortable eating at a sit-down restaurant, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll reported this week.

Interestingly, people in states with looser restrictions reported levels of discomfort similar to those in states with stricter rules.

Six in 10 people support stay-at-home restrictions and more than half are more concerned about stopping the virus’s spread than about the economic fallout, according to an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll last month.

Americans by vast majorities are not ready to return to school, go back to work, attend large sports events or eat in restaurants, a PBS-NPR-Marist poll reported.

And, remember, it’s consumers who hold the keys to the car. If they aren’t willing to take it for a spin, it’s sitting in the driveway.

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell warned April 29 that while stay-at-home and social distancing orders stopped the economy cold, the economy won’t heal until consumers feel COVID-19 is under control.

“It’s worth remembering that the measures we are taking to contain the virus represent an investment in our individual and collective health,” Powell said April 29.

So what’s the rush? Trump believes his reelection depends on a booming economy. He acknowledges reopening will mean the sacrifice of American lives.

“Will some people be affected? Yes,” he said on his trip to Arizona Tuesday. “Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open, and we have to get it open soon.”

On Wednesday, he said the country “may very well” need to accept greater loss of life as the economy reopens. He insists, despite polls to the contrary, that social distancing rules are not sustainable.

The economic ruin that has swamped the country is horrific and unprecedented. Thirty-three million Americans have filed for unemployment, and the picture is likely to get much worse before it finally gets better, Powell said.

To reopen successfully, we need reliable widespread testing and contact tracing.

Real national leadership would acknowledge that reality and move to make testing and tracing a national priority, not left to each state.

Real national leadership would advise patience while scientists develop a vaccine and effective treatments.

Americans will make their own decisions for themselves and their families. Just because the government says you should go back out and spend money doesn’t mean you must.

If masks are voluntary, as Trump insists, so too is shopping at the mall, going to bars and restaurants and getting a manicure.

Be smart. Staying home, covering your face and observing social distancing are still the safest bet.

©2020 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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Trump commits U.S. to more trees, maybe -- Jan. 23, 2020 column

By MARSHA MERCER

Nobody would mistake President Donald Trump for a tree hugger.

He has dismissed climate change as a “hoax,” rolled back many Obama-era environmental and clean energy policies that reduce carbon emissions, and is withdrawing the United States from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

But as his impeachment trial was poised to begin in Washington Tuesday, Trump announced during a campaign-style speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the United States would join in the forum’s 1 Trillion Trees initiative. What?

The forum launched 1t.org to connect, support and fund the international movement to plant 1 trillion trees around the globe in coming decades to fight climate change.

Billionaire entrepreneur Marc Benioff, founder of the software company Salesforce, and his wife Lynne are providing financial support for the 1t.org digital platform. Benioff said his company also intends “to support and mobilize the conservation and restoration of 100 million trees over the next decade.”

Trump’s announcement that the U.S. will join 1t.org drew applause from the global business and government leaders in Davos, but it’s unclear what happens next.  

“We will continue to show strong leadership in restoring, growing and better managing our trees and forests,” Trump said, but offered no specifics.

Although he described himself to reporters in Davos as “a very big believer in the environment,” Trump has proposed cuts in the U.S. Forest Service, opened public lands to drilling and mining, and pushed for new logging in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.

In Davos, Trump downplayed climate fears saying, “This is not a time for pessimism; this is a time for optimism. . . this is a time for tremendous hope and joy and optimism and action.”

He also indirectly called out Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate activist from Sweden who was in the audience. She urges all countries to heed the call by the United Nations environmental panel to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over a decade to avoid intense climate impact. That will require reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% between now and 2030.

But Trump said: "We must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse. They are the heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune tellers.” He also lambasted “radical socialists” who would ruin the U.S. economy with environmental regulations.

Forests remove carbon dioxide from the air and store the carbon in trees, vegetation, the forest floor and in the soil. This carbon removal, or sequestration, “makes the forest a type of carbon sink by absorbing more CO2 than is emitted. This absorption partially offsets the contribution of carbon to the atmosphere from carbon sources such as the burning of fossil fuels,” the Virginia Department of Forestry says on its website.

Some nations have acted. Ethiopia planted more than 350 million trees in 12 hours last July, setting a new world record. India had held the record for planting 66 million trees in 2017.

Trump’s comments in Davos reflect the shifting politics of climate in Congress. House Republicans who recognize they’re losing young voters concerned about climate issues, are developing an alternative to the Democrats’ Green New Deal, Axios reported this week. The Green New Deal would remake the economy to fight climate change. The GOP plan stops short of envisioning major changes in how we work and live.

Rep. Bruce Westerman, Republican of Arkansas, is drafting a Trillion Trees Act that will set a target for growing more trees “for the purpose of sequestering carbon,” according to a summary of the bill Axios viewed, but so far does not include an actual numerical target.

Who doesn’t like trees? Planting them makes people feel good, but that by itself won’t come close to solving the climate crisis. It’s estimated reforestation could provide only up to one-third of the climate solutions needed by 2030 to meet the 1.5 degree goal, the forum reported.

“Nature-based solutions will only be effective if undertaken in conjunction with other efforts to transform energy, heavy industry and the finance sectors,” the forum said.

We in the United States should plant trees as a first step, but we, the Trump administration and Congress will need to do more to fight climate change.

© Marsha Mercer 2020. All rights reserved.

Trump tweets and plays us `like a Stradivarius' -- July 18, 2019 column

By MARSHA MERCER

For an apt description of President Donald Trump’s shrewd use of social media, you need look no further than Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Democrat of Missouri.

“He’s playing us like a Stradivarius,” Cleaver, a United Methodist minister, said Wednesday.

A day earlier, the House voted 240 to 187 to strongly condemn as racist Trump’s tweets aimed at four members of Congress who are women of color. Cleaver had been presiding officer during the acrimonious run-up to the vote.

As Democrats and Republicans feuded, Cleaver grew frustrated, put down the gavel and walked away, abandoning the chair.  

“My suggestion to the House and the Senate and the people of the country is to forget the man’s tweets. . . He knows that there will be a reaction, and he also knows that a portion of his base is OK with him insulting people.” Cleaver said Wednesday on CNN.

We know the pattern. Whenever Trump feels threatened, he goes on the offensive with his Twitter account -- and Democrats reliably take the bait.  

If former special counsel Robert Mueller is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill about his investigation into Russians helping Trump win in 2016, Trump tweets – and changes the subject. Mueller’s appearance was postponed until July 24.

If the news focuses on deplorable conditions on the border or on a gazillionaire child predator Trump partied with, Trump tweets – and changes the subject.

Outraged Democrats always respond, but should they?  

“He’s going to insult some others, he’s going to speak some untruths and so forth – we need to just let him hang out at the White House and do that,” Cleaver said.

It’s not easy to let a president’s untruths and malicious tone go unchallenged.

Trump claimed falsely the four representatives “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world.” If they didn’t like it here, they should go back where they came from, he said.

The tweets were directed -- not by name -- to freshman Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

All are fierce Trump critics and American citizens born in the United States -- except for Omar, who was born in Somalia and is a naturalized citizen.

When House Democrats rightly defended their colleagues, Trump triumphantly tweeted: “The Dems were trying to distance themselves from the four `progressives,’ but now they are forced to embrace them. That means they are endorsing Socialism, hate of Israel and the USA! Not good for Democrats!”

That’s absurd, of course, but it’s a sign of what’s ahead. Trump’s strategy is to hurl personal insults and racially infused, “love it or leave it” rhetoric while insisting he’s not racist.

“Those tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!” he tweeted.

The House resolution condemning his tweets quoted Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy and Reagan in praise of immigrants and under House rules avoided calling Trump himself a racist.

And yet 57 percent of Americans think Trump is a racist, a poll conducted last year by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reported.

His tweets and policies put him on the wrong side of history and demography. The United States is inevitably becoming more diverse.

In 2013 for the first time, most infants under age 1 in the United States were nonwhite, the Census Bureau reported. In 2016, more non-Hispanic whites died than were born in 26 states, an analysis of Census data by the Applied Population Lab at the University of Wisconsin found.

The United States is projected to become majority minority by 2045. That is, blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other minorities will be a majority and whites will be in the minority.

But almost half of white Americans say the country’s becoming majority nonwhite would “weaken American customs and values,” a Pew Research Center survey in March found.

Make no mistake, Trump knows his tweets and anti-immigrant policies tap into and feed those fears about the future.

If Democratic presidential candidates ignore or fail to take the fears seriously while responding to his every hateful tweet, Trump will keep playing us.

©2019 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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Latest nightmare for migrants ends -- for now -- June 21, 2018 column

By MARSHA MERCER

As President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday, ending his cruel policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the southern border, he said: “You’re going to have a lot of happy people.”

Don’t believe it.

This is not the start of a kinder, gentler Trump. If anything, the president likely will feel the need to show his tougher side to compensate for caving in on his administration’s policy of separating families. 

Yes, the shameful spectacle of families being torn apart has ended – at least for now. 

Families seeking asylum and a better life after long and dangerous trips to the border will be allowed to stay together. But Trump wants to keep them  incarcerated indefinitely.

So much for the Statue of Liberty’s promise to “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

His “zero tolerance” crackdown continues, with his administration continuing to prosecute every person caught crossing the border illegally.

There’s no plan to reunite more than 2,300 babies and children already separated from their parents and held in facilities around the country.

Immigration officials reportedly kept such poor records that reunification specialists warn it may take parents a long time to find their children and some may never find them at all.

In addition, Trump plans to issue tougher rules for legal – as well as illegal – immigration.

Trump’s retreat shows the power of social and traditional media. The photos and audio of toddlers wailing for their parents were horrifying.

His about-face proved he lied. After repeatedly claiming he could not end by executive order the policy he initiated, he did just that.

The administration announced its zero-tolerance policy in April, and yet Trump repeatedly blamed Democrats, as in this tweet: “The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda.” He sometimes blamed a “law” that doesn’t exist.

As the crisis over separations grew, Trump met Tuesday with congressional Republicans behind closed doors. Whatever else they said, the Republicans appeased the president’s fragile ego by giving him a standing ovation. We know because he tweeted out a picture.

The next day, he reversed the policy he had said he couldn’t reverse through an executive order so hastily written it misspelled separation. The fix may be temporary.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen warned members of Congress in a private meeting that family separations could resume if Congress fails to go along with Trump’s immigration demands, The Washington Post reported.

Trump believes his tough stand on immigration was key to winning the White House, and he’s terrified of appearing weak.

Not until every former first lady, his own wife and daughter, a bevy of Republicans in Congress, the American people and the Pope rose in moral outrage did he reluctantly play the compassion card.

“If you’re really, really pathetically weak, the country’s going to be overrun with millions of people, and if you’re strong, then you don’t have any heart,” Trump told congressional Republicans Wednesday. “Perhaps I’d rather be strong, but that’s a tough dilemma.”

Currently the government is prohibited by a court order known as the Flores settlement from keeping migrant children in detention longer than 20 days. Trump directed 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions to seek a modification to the order so kids and families can be kept indefinitely, throughout their court proceedings. 

The administration is considering several other policies to curtail legal immigration, including “tightening rules on student visas and exchange programs; limiting visas for temporary agricultural workers; making it harder for legal immigrants who have 

applied for any welfare programs to obtain residency; and collecting biometric data from visitors from certain countries,” Politico reported.

While Trump enjoyed his usual support from Republicans – Fox News host Tucker Carlson told viewers not to believe news on other TV networks -- Democrats claimed the moral high ground, contending the separations would leave a lasting stain on the country, similar to the shame of Japanese internment camps during World War II.

Both sides, unfortunately, are more intent on scoring political points for November than on fixing the immigration system everyone agrees is broken.  

So, no, President Trump, there are not a lot of happy people -- not Republicans, not Democrats and not desperate migrant families who are still yearning to breathe free.

(c)2018 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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