The Plague Year

I just finished The Plague Year:  America in the Time of Covid by Lawrence Wright.  I thought I knew the story well, but Wright’s telling of the year-long events is gripping and sometimes depressing.  

He notes the times we could have had a handle on this disease.  The first one we couldn’t do much about; the government of China initially downplayed Covid-19 and actually punished people who tried to get the word out about the seriousness of the disease.

The second time is when we had only a few cases, but we allowed people to congregate, to fly, to board airplanes and cruise ships.  We simply did not take the disease seriously.  Remember our President saying it would go away, like a miracle.

The third time, Wright says, is if we had cooperation in mask wearing.  Instead the disease itself became politicized, downplayed and mishandled by the Administration.  We forget the mistakes made by Mayor DeBlasio and Gov. Cuomo or Dr. Fauci in the early days.  On the other hand, some political and medical leaders learned from their mistakes.  Some leaders never learned anything and continued to screw up the Covid response.  And some, like the Governor of South Dakota, doubled down as deaths went up.  

Probably many books will be written about America’s botched response, but this one sets a high standard.