America’s COVID-19 Accomplices

Sandra Goldsmith talks with her husband George Senge through the window of a skilled nursing facility in Santa Monica, Calif., on July 9, 2020.

(Michael Goldsmith/The Corsair)

I remember waking up on September 11, 2001, to the news that America was under attack. That morning 19 jihadists had simultaneously hijacked four separate airliners and used them to kill nearly 3,000 innocent people. It was the deadliest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.

As horrific and damaging to the national psyche as that day was, it ended up bringing Americans together in a way nothing else could. We had been attacked — not just one individual, group, or political party, but the country as a whole. The tragedy of 9/11 momentarily turned America back into the United States.

Our country has once again been attacked, this time by an invisible enemy, with the help of millions of Americans. When we look back on this pandemic, the tragedy will be how it didn’t have to be this way. The virus was sure to kill a lot of people in a country of over 300 million, but it could never have reached the level it did without the help of America’s COVID accomplices.

It’s easy to become numb to death, especially when it’s other people’s families and friends. Hearing the daily and collective statistics during the pandemic, it begins to feel like these numbers aren’t real people. However, it's all too real for those who have lost loved ones and suffered personal tragedy over the past year. 

Businesses and schools will eventually reopen. People will find new jobs. Life will go on for the living. But those killed by the pandemic aren’t going to be rising from their coffins, and people who missed out on being with their dying loved ones will never get a do-over. 

My mom and I haven’t seen my dad face-to-face in over nine months. A few years ago we were forced to move him into a skilled nursing home due to the mounting effects of his dementia, including losing the ability to talk or understand language. He has no way of understanding why we don’t visit him anymore. Although we are extremely grateful for tools like FaceTime, there’s no substitute for human-to-human contact.

After the first coronavirus outbreak at his facility, all “non-essential” personnel were prohibited from visiting, including families. The twice-a-week window visits we subsequently had with him were canceled after the second outbreak. As the virus currently explodes across the country, my family and millions of others like us have absolutely no idea when we’ll be able to see our loved ones next.

Our family is fortunate in many ways. We have the resources to provide my dad with the care he needs. His facility is staffed by many caring individuals who try and provide him with both physical and emotional support. The hard reality is that there’s no replacing this lost time.  

The real tragedy of this once-in-a-century pandemic is that my family’s situation isn’t extraordinary — it’s sadly become common place. Countless other Americans have and continue to suffer far more than us.  

While my mom and I have been following the public safety guidelines put out by healthcare professionals since the beginning of the pandemic, tens of millions of Americans have decided that they’re special — choosing to live in their alternative-facts bubble. President Donald Trump is at the top of that list. 

In a recorded March 19 phone call with journalist Bob Woodward earlier this year, Trump admitted he knew how deadly the pandemic would be. “I always wanted to play it down. I still like playing it down,” the president responded to Woodward. Trump continued,  “Now it's turning out it's not just old people...Plenty of young people.” 

While privately confessing knowledge of the tremendous infectiousness and lethality of the virus, the president continued to mislead the American people. His purposeful deception and negligence has resulted in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. It’s important to remember that he’s not alone. 

Every politician who enabled and made excuses for his impotent and callous response to this crisis has blood on their hands. Every media pundit who lied to their audience has blood on their hands. Every anti-medicine quack who preyed upon scared and vulnerable Americans has blood on their hands. And most importantly, to every person who decided that their momentary comfort and pleasure was worth more than their fellow American’s lives, the blood is on your hands.