21st Century Plague: Rise and Fall of a Global Pandemic

[Trollheart]

Country: Iran
Continent: Asia
Governing Party:++ None, so far as I can see: all ministers serve under the Supreme Leader and the President
Political affiliation: I guess you'd say right wing?
Main crisis leaders:++ Ali Khamenei (Supreme Leader), Ebrahim Raisi (President),  Mohammad Mokhber (Vice President)
Status of country: State; Islamist Theocracy
Cases (at time of lockdown:* 9,000 or 100,000
Deaths (at time of lockdown) 34 or 210
Cases (at time of writing):** 7,251,429
Deaths (at time of writing): 141,44 or 270,898 depending on source
Date of first lockdown: March 14
Duration: 37 days
Number of lockdowns (to date): 2
Reaction level+++: 60
Vaccine uptake (at time of writing): 69%
Score:***  25

How do you think the virus got on in an Islamist state? Yeah, if you want real, hardline, uncompromising, stuck-in-the-eighteenth-century good old blood and guts Islamic fundamentalist fire, Iran is the place to go. As I note above, the system of government is hard for me to work out, given only the most cursory look at how it works, but I don't think there are any political parties and even the President is very much subservient to the Supreme Leader, who basically seems to rule more or less like an absolute monarch.  His word is law, and even presidents can be dismissed or - presumably - imprisoned or maybe even executed on his orders.

So it will come as a shock to absolutely nobody that Iran followed the "Chinese approach" when it came to outbreaks in its country, which is to say, they told everyone who knew about it to keep it buttoned unless they fancied losing various important parts of their anatomy. Iran has never been that forthcoming anyway (remember the nuclear facilities back in the 2000s?) and tends to forcibly isolate itself from the west, and from most of the rest of the world too, so they were hardly going to be sharing information were they? As a result, early reports of cases there are hard to verify, but it looks like some medical professionals, worried about the coming crisis and braver than most, spoke to a reporter for the west on condition of anonymity, being quite attached to all their bodily parts. From their data it seems the first case in Iran may have been as early as December of 2019, almost just as the Chinese were realising they had a big problem on their hands. Not only were they told to shut up, but in a move so massively arrogant as to all but defy logic, they were told not to wear protective gear, for fear of causing a panic if anyone saw them. Oh  yeah, that's cool: risk your life for the State. If you die, the Prophet will be pleased, but he may ask you to wear a mask before you're admitted into Paradise. As for those seventy-two virgins, well, you just remember the social distancing rule, buddy, all right? Last thing we need up here is a fucking outbreak of Covid-19!

I have to admit, I'm staggered. I mean, I knew the Americans were crazy (some of them anyway) and would risk their lives and those of others to apparently prove a point, or be the alpha dog, but though mask mandates were only ordered in a few states, I feel sure that even in the reddest of the red states the doctors were not discouraged from wearing masks and PPE, much less forbidden to do so. On February 19 - not quite sure why, but they must have been forced into it - the government announced the first death. This surely came as a surprise, as up to then the public had been kept in the dark about Covid, and with presumably little or no access to western media, would likely have known nothing about the plague that was already in their country wreaking havoc. As one of the doctors reportedly said, "We reported the first death before we reported the first case." Surely a unique situation.

Showing the difference between official case/death counts and actual ones, a graphic on Wiki shows that on February 19 two deaths were reported, but the anonymous doctors barked bitterly to the reporter that there were already so many dead that a bulldozer had to be hired by a local cemetery in order to bury them. The airline controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mahan Air, stubbornly continued flying into China, indeed into Wuhan, long after other countries had stopped services to the Asian continent. As cases, and deaths, spiralled out of control, the Revolutionary Guard were detailed to visit hospitals and seize death counts before they could be released to the media. Iran would become a focus of the virus, but would do its best to remain the tightest-lipped and least cooperative of all countries in reporting its progress.

It was of course, as it ever has been, all about control. If the people, who were supposed to look to the Supreme Leader as a kind of god figure (not really, but the representative of the Prophet on Earth, so maybe a far more powerful and active Pope?) realised that there was something Khamenei had lost control over, his power might come into question, and that would never do. Can't wait to see how North Korea approached this! They think their guy IS a god! Anyway, back in Iran the idea of Covid being used as a tool of suppression, a sort of Covid conspiracy theory before there were Covid conspiracy theories, was spread around, as the government blamed the USA for over-hyping the virus in order to, get this, disrupt Iran's elections! Oh yeah. America was already battling its own president's refusal to even acknowledge the existence of Covid-19, but had time to sneakily interfere in Iran's internal politics! Right.

The regime also vowed to take action against anyone who tried to find out, tell or otherwise fuck with the truth. Iran didn't need the truth. Iran couldn't handle the truth. No truth handler, it! Bah! I deride its truth-handling abilities, and so on. In fact, it could handle it, it just didn't want to, or to be more accurate, it didn't want it getting out. So the usual heavy-handedness went on while the virus, unconcerned about Allah or Mohammed or Ali fucking Khamenei, went about its business. Look, I know, and you know that the virus is not sentient, so this is just for artistic purposes, but Covid must have considered an extended stay in Iran. So nice: the people ignore you, there are no precautions at all, you can kill at will - why would you want to leave?

And it didn't. Iran would become another of the huge hot-spots where cases, and deaths, would absolutely go through the roof. So much, then, for Allah's divine protection.

As is usually the case though, one rule for them and one for us. The parliamentary session held on February 29 required all members to submit to body temperature readings (the closest they would allow to Covid testing I guess) and when three members were found to be in the range which would indicate a positive test they were asked not to attend. Fuck you, all three said, and went anyway. How Trumpian of you, guys. By March they had at least admitted publicly to the outbreak, and a committee was set up to tackle it. Old enmities and rivalries surfaced when Iran (having previously called them a "tool of the western hegemony") asked the IMF for money to help them combat the spread of the disease, and Trump said "I'll be buggered by a Democrat before I let those filthy muslim bastards have any of our money!" Or words to that effect, possibly those exact words, who knows? Basically, the US said no, so the IMF spread its hands and said, sorry guys. No cash for you. No doubt muttering about capitalist infidels and pulling out those plans for an attack on a US embassy somewhere, the Supreme Leader fumed but could do nothing. In fairness, had this somehow been reversed, do you think old Ali would have helped out brother Donald? As if.

With the news now out in the open, and terrible retribution and punishment no longer on the tabel (well, not from the government anyway; the virus was about to hand out its own terrible form of poetic justice) one of the premier colleges in Iran published a study which gave three, more or less equally bleak, scenarios: if people cooperated with health guidelines, the Republic could expect to see in the region of 12,000 deaths before this thing blew itself out. If there was a more moderate response, the deaths would climb to 110,000, and if nobody cooperated the death toll would be in excess of three million. That of course did not stop Iran screaming about western influences, and the doctors from Medecins Sans Frontieres were kicked out, accused of being spies. Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face!

Trump madness reached into Iran, as over 700 people died as a result of drinking Methanol, believing, somehow, that it was protection against the virus. Might as well have been drinking bleach. Oh. Wait. Never mind. Not at all to anyone's surprise, at least outside of Iran, many prominent politicians and public figures, including those in the Health Ministry, were infected and quite a few died. I'm not going to go writing all their long bloody names here, but suffice to say Iran's first ambassador to the Vatican found himself unexpectedly closer to Allah than he had intended, a member of the Supreme Leader's Expediency Council shuffled off too, as did a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, a former ayatollah and a film director. A whole lot more got sick. Typically, Iran blamed the USA in a conspiracy whereby the "Great Satan" had engineered the virus, or a version of it, to specifically target Iranians. Sounds familiar, don't it? And where the USA is, can Israel be far behind? Natch, the Jews got pulled into the conspiracy, another one without of course a shred of proof.

Crackdowns continued. Anyone who was seen to be promoting or disseminating "false" information (ie, true) was arrested and charged, and eventually in a Hitlerian move, all newspapers were shut down. To date, Iran is said to have arrested over 3,500 people on charges of, well, whatever they want to charge them with I guess. Probably sedition, or spreading information deemed to be harmful to the regime, or god knows what. Iranians were not allowed take part in vaccine testing by "foreign" companies (I doubt they had their own vaccine developed, as surely Allah wanted them to die, so to oppose his will... you know how it goes). Prisoners were released - up to 70,000 - and others didn't wait, breaking out or rioting - and then breaking out - as chaos erupted across the state as it headed for its first lockdown, despite the assurances given only weeks before that there would be none.

Unlike western democracies - and some Arab ones - where pandemic payments were made available to the public, in Iran these were seen as loans, and to be repaid with four percent interest. Nice. A phrase that really echoes in just about any country rang true here too: with the lifting of restrictions, the number of new cases rose. It's staggering to me how people just did not get it. When we do France, I'll be remarking on how Parisians, released from lockdown, immediately - and I mean immediately - ran out into the streets and mingled with not a care for social distancing, masks or any other precautions. Children being let out of school, with about as much sense of responsibility. And of course, very quickly cases spiked again. But it happened everywhere, especially here. You can of course understand people's frustration and the need to get back to normal, but you know, the virus don't care about normal, and it was just waiting to inflict further death and illness once restrictions allowed it to get in range of people again. And they helped.

Although Iran made Remdesivir locally, this is not a vaccine but a treatment, and they were eventually constrained to bow to the inevitable and import vaccines from the USA, despite opposition by the friendly old Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who probably feared the Great Satan was trying to turn all Iranians into Christians or something. Given the lack of any sort of precaution, lockdown or even information about the virus up to four months after the first case may have been detected there, Iran became another Italy or Spain, spreading the tentacles of Covid far and wide. Cases resulted from contact with Iran in places as far apart as Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Qatar and even Thailand. Spread the love, that's what I say! I'm sure Mohammed would have approved.

Nevertheless, the EU provided 20 million Euro to Iran to help them combat the outbreak - a long long way from the five billion it wanted from the IMF, but I guess something is better than nothing - and various aid agencies sent workers and supplies to the stricken state. Trump grinned he would be willing to help "if they asked". He'd probably like that request on bended knee, the Supreme Leader kissing a Bible. His sanctions against the country for their nuclear ambitions had of course made it doubly difficult for efforts to combat the virus to work, but Trump just grinned while one of his lobby buddies snarled that no aid of any kind should be allowed get through to Iran, effectively I guess making the - completely ludicrous - case that they should all be left to die.

Speaking of death - and with the Coronavirus, when are we not? - many accusations were levelled at the Iranian government that they underreported cases and especially deaths (quelle surprise, huh?) with some sources claiming the figures could be as much as five times higher than were officially reported. One source (possibly the reporter that spoke to the doctors at the beginning of the pandemic, referred to above, or someone who used his data) claimed that when the government reported 34 deaths on February 28 there had been in fact 210, while cases of 9,000 just before lockdown were widely believed to be more in the 100,000 range. Even the First Deputy Minister of the Parliament agreed that the figures released were "not real". Leaked records from the Iranian government, obtained by the BBC in March, showed that cases and deaths were being underreported by a factor of three-to-one, in other words three times as many were being infected/dying as were being admitted to officially. Satellite images of huge freshly-dug mass graves backed up the doctors' contention that far more were dying initially than had been reported, and that more were expected to die.

One opposition group, now in exile and dedicated to the overthrow of the current government (therefore I guess what the Supreme Leader referred to as "counter-revolutionaries"), estimated the death toll to be as high as TWENTY times that reported. Needless to say, the official position was to deny any allegations or accusations of suppressing of numbers of cases and deaths by the government of Iran. In July of 2020 the US Department of State accused Iranian state officials of embezzling money from the fund of over one billion Euro, meant to combat the outbreak, and of hoarding masks, PPE and other medical supplies for sale on the black market.

Clearly, the virus is still slicing its way through the populace; as recently as February of this year (2022) a quarter of the Iranian parliament have contracted the Omicron strain, and death figures continue to mount, though what the true picture is I guess we will never know for sure.

[Trollheart]

Country: Germany
Continent: Europe
Governing Party:++ Christian Democratic Union
Political affiliation: Centre Left?
Main crisis leaders:++ Angela Merkel (Chancellor), Jens Spahn (Minister of Health), Horst Seehofer (Minister of the Interior)
Status of country: Republic
Cases (at time of lockdown:* 1200+
Deaths (at time of lockdown) 2
Cases (at time of writing):** 29,308,100 (yeah: just shy of thirty MILLION!)
Deaths (at time of writing): 142,139
Date of first lockdown: March 16
Duration: 76 days
Number of lockdowns (to date): 2
Reaction level+++: 50
Vaccine uptake (at time of writing): 76%
Score:*** 20

Oh here we go. America could have kicked the virus's arse, had there been someone competent in charge, yes? If the US had had a man - or woman - in the White House who actually listened to the science and didn't try to pretend the virus didn't exist, they would be in a far different and likely better place than they are today. So Germany, Europe's powerhouse leader and pretty much the equivalent of the US on the continent, should have been leading the field, driving lockdowns, vaccine production, protecting its citizens, yes? Should have been a breeze to them. But wait! What's that I see? Almost thirty million cases? How did that happen? Look! Germany even had the Infection Protection Act, which gave the country's government wide-ranging powers to tackle a virus outbreak. This should have been a slam dunk. What went wrong?

Well...

Germany's first recorded case seems to have come on February 25, and who would like to guess where the gentleman had just spent his holidays? A day later, two people related to him also came down with the virus, as did others who had recently returned from Italy. Okay, hold on: this article is doing its cases by state, so I have to correct that. That guy on Feb 25 was not the first, just the first in that state. Pays to read ahead, Trollheart you dummy! Right, let's scan, people. Okay, so, to redress that error: the first case was actually in January, in Bavaria, and is interesting. Despite my snide comment above, this man did not visit Italy; China was his undoing, but he had not been there. His colleague had, but she had caught the virus from her parents, whom she had met in Shanghai, and who had come from the very epicentre, ground zero, Wuhan.

Right, it's too confusing to try to do a timeline for the number of cases, with all these states treated separately, so let's leave that for now. There were certainly in the region of at least 100 by the end of February, that much I have been able to add up, but then, I don't know if that article is only taking representative states and maybe there are others which aren't reported on, but which had cases. It seems though that Germany, like its neighbour the Netherlands, initially shrugged at Covid-19 and did not believe it to be a threat; no travel restrictions were considered or implemented in January. I guess the people didn't have the same sort of faith in their government, and by the close of January there wasn't a mask to be got in Germany. Again, pretty amazingly, the main concern of the government as January gave way to February was the possible stigmatisation of those who had been infected, that they might be excluded from society. I mean, come on! There's taking liberal socialism too far, isn't there?

Two weeks in and Germany was indeed emulating its huge corpulent brother across the great ocean, and dismissing the pandemic; they voted against the restriction of travel to or from China, believing it xenophobic. Ah, those Germans! How easily they forget. Sorry. The madness continued. With not a mask to be bought for love or money in Germany, they decided to export over 8 tons of PPE to... China. This was in fact in addition to a previous consignment of 5 tons already sent. You couldn't make this stuff up!

"Why can't we buy masks, gloves and shields, sir?"
"Oh, we sent them all to China."
"But... but didn't they start this whole thing?"
"Well yes, but we Germans don't need that sort of stuff. Coronavirus isn't contagious. We'll be fine."

Gott in Himmel! Incredibly, by March, when many other countries were considering lockdowns, Germany persisted in keeping its borders open, running social and sporting events, keeping people at work and refused to limit flights, describing such action as "inappropriate". Just to add to the rampant stupidity or blindness, they sent another few ton of medical supplies out of the country, this time bound for Iran. Where, as we saw in the previous post, they were most likely taken by government officials and sold on the black market or hoarded for their own personal use. Nice one, Angela! I'm reminded of the ending of the Fawlty Towers episode "The Germans," where, having witnessed the chaos in Fawlty Towers, a bewildered German looks to the camera and delivers the final line: "How did they ever win?" Well, I'm now thinking how did these people ever secure all of Western Europe and hold it for nearly five years?

To their utter surprise, the day after a large consignment of medical gear had headed out to the Islamist Republic of Iran, German facilities began complaining they hadn't enough medical equipment to handle their own Covid cases. Well, duh! The next day a prohibition order went out, stopping any future export of medical goods. I wonder could they hear the horse galloping over the fields and the barn door banging in the wind? Jesus wept. So, too, most likely, did the German patients waiting to be seen to. Even more incredibly, at this point Health Minister Spahn was STILL going on about "fear being worse than the virus". Well no you stupid fucker, it was not. Fear doesn't generally kill people in their thousands, while the virus does. I begin to run out of expletives for how stupid these people are coming across as being. Master race my arse!

Hold the phone there! Two of the smaller parties actually praised the government for their handling of the crisis? Did I read that - yeah, I read that right. The radical right-wing party AdF disagreed, and while I'm loath to share any common ground with the far right, I have to admit that, based on what I've read here, they were on the money and were possibly one of the only ones with the balls to speak against the government. I'm sure they were nutcases who wanted to burn the Reichstag or whatever, but at least they were truthful nutcases. Israel must have surely taken some sneaking pleasure in declaring a quarantine on all German travellers arriving in their country, but it was of course the right thing to do. Well, no: the right thing to have done would have been to have banned them entering Israel, but they didn't go that far.

Denial seems to have been the watchword in Germany. Even into the first week in March the people were still being told not to worry, this was nothing, it would all pass. Trump must have been taking notes (or sending them), although he probably would not have approved the very important measure the Germans took of banning prostitution for the duration of the crisis. On March 9, with cases standing at 1,200, the first two deaths from the virus were announced. Merkel still refused to instigate any sort of lockdown, or restrict travel. Truth to tell, the Chancellor had been conspicuous by her absence during the previous months, so I guess the running of the crisis management - if it can be called that, with extreme generosity - must have been Spahn. As could only be expected in a country taking pretty much no precautions, and leaving it up to individuals to protect themselves (while still throwing out contradictory advice such as not to bother with disinfectants, those who showed no symptoms should not be temperature tested and so on) members of the German parliament soon got the virus, then Trump blindsided Merkel by banning travel from Germany to the USA on March 12. Germany had not been consulted.

The next day almost all of the federal states in Germany (14 of 16) told Merkel to go fuck herself and closed all their schools. The German Bundesliga (German soccer association) suspended all matches till at least April, to the dismay of the Mayor of Berlin, who had arrogantly claimed the big match between Bayern Munich and Union Berlin would go ahead, with full spectators, the next day. Leaving Germany to it, Poland, the Czech Republic and Denmark closed their borders. Germany was left scrambling for ventilators and other important medical equipment it had already sent to China and Iran. With 4,500 cases and nine dead, Germany finally got it and went into lockdown on March 16, closing their borders as Italy screamed "Don't end up like us! This thing is real, and it's killing us!" The next day the entire European Union closed its borders to any travel from outside of Europe for thirty days, and advised (but did not prohibit) Europeans from travelling. Somehow, incredibly, through I guess some legal loophole, flights still arrived and passengers were allowed in from... China and Iran. Jesus.

Hospitals were by now of course facing a shortage of PPE, while it was reported that 80% of GPs had none. Evidence emerged that a manufacturer of masks had warned in early February of shortages, but had been ignored. German health officials twisted and turned, trying to shift the blame. Curfews began to be imposed by various states, unrest and riots broke out, and panic buying ensued, as it always would. Volkswagen bought medical equipment from China (which could have been originally some of the consignment Germany sent them, if you think about it) and donated it to the German efforts to fight the virus. In a comically tragic episode, six million German-manufactured masks, which for some reason, never explained, were in Kenya, were half-inched and never got to their destination. Germany was now begging China for masks, reversing the role they had played when they had been so sure that the virus was nothing to worry about that they could send the PPE off to China. Bet they wished they had kept them at home!

As they stubbornly and pig-headedly charged with eyes wide open towards disaster, Germany still refused to cancel school exams, declaring they would go ahead on March 25. The Robert Koch Institute, a voice crying unheard in the wilderness, continued to make dire - and as it turned out of course, accurate and true - predictions of how bad this was going to get, and convince the government to take it more seriously. Which they did not. Some took perhaps the easy way out: on March 28 the body of Hesse's Finance Minister, Thomas Schäfer was discovered near a railway line; clearly the pressure had been too much for him and he had taken his own life. Amazingly, it took till almost April before any sort of mask mandate went in place, and that only happened in certain states. Of course, there being no masks for even hospitals might have had something to do with this; not much point rushing out to buy a mask only to be told there are none to be had. Borders began to open from May 13, with full access to be allowed by June 15.

[Trollheart]

Country: Saudi Arabia
Continent: Asia
Governing Party:++ None
Political affiliation: None
Main crisis leaders:++ His Majesty King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, His Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Status of country: Kingdom (Unitary Islamist absolute monarchy)
Cases (at time of lockdown:* 562
Deaths (at time of lockdown) Unknown; I can only find details of 1 confirmed death. Right.
Cases (at time of writing):** 547,402
Deaths (at time of writing): 8,922 (official) to 182,773 (independent estimate)
Date of first lockdown: March 23
Duration: 90 days
Number of lockdowns (to date): 1
Reaction level+++: 10
Vaccine uptake (at time of writing): 72%
Score:*** 55

I suppose there are advantages to being an absolute monarchy in a situation such as we faced with the outbreak of Covid, one being that there is no opposition party to thwart or raise a dissenting voice to your plans to tackle it - Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, where the King has the same basic power as the likes of King Louis XIV in France in the seventeenth century, i.e., absolute - and another being that in an absolute and, let's face it, brutally oppressive monarchy such as that practiced in Saudi Arabia, you really don't have a choice. If the King says take your vaccine, you take your vaccine. If the King says stay at home, you better believe you're staying home! So on the surface - and always depending on the attitude of His Majesty to the virus - this should have been a done deal. No protests or riots here! No disobedience, no refusal to comply, no civil disorder.

But was it like that? And did the King go with science or did he, being subject to the laws of Allah, trust in his god and sneer at vaccines, at the very Coronavirus itself? I ask, not as leading questions, or to give you the answers, but honestly, as I have, until I read it after typing this, no idea which way the Royal Family went, where they stood, which side they came down on when it came to this devilish plague that assaulted believers and infidels alike.

So let's find out, shall we?

First of all, how did the virus get in? Well, it seems another Islamist Republic was to blame, as the first case was traced to a man returning from Iran via Bahrain (spread it around now, don't be mean) on March 2. It took another twenty-one days before the King ordered a curfew; nobody was allowed travel within the Kingdom between the hours of 7pm and 6am. What this meant in terms of travel outside of the realm I don't know, but you certainly could not consider it yet a lockdown. Despite this precaution, and as we have seen in other, more progressive countries, the case load grew, ballooning to 562 by March 23, and the next day to 767, at which point the Kingdom had its first death reported, that of an Afghan national. By the end of the month cases were climbing towards the 1,500 mark.

Prior to this, the King had already banned the entry of Muslims into the country who wished to visit the great shrines at Mecca and Medina, and ordered the Grand Mosque closed for daily sterilisation, and on March 19 all prayers were suspended. For an Islamic nation, this surely came as a massive blow. I mean, people here in Ireland were whining about the churches being closed, but hell, most of them would go to mass once a week, if that, other than the older generation (mostly old ladies) who might go every morning. Now imagine going several times a day, every day, and suddenly you're prevented from doing so. I wonder, had this not been a monarchy, would unrest, to say the least, have erupted?

To make matters worse for the Muslim population, the next day the two shrines, the major mosques at Medina and Mecca were closed. I suppose consider St. Mark's Square suddenly being made off-limits to Christians. Which, given the state Italy was in, it probably was. As early as February 6 His Majesty had banned travel from his Kingdom to China. Like Lombardy in Italy, one area of the Kingdom was placed under total lockdown early, this being the Al Qatif governorate, though the rest of the Kingdom soon followed. Sports events were originally to be played behind closed doors and without spectators, though a week later these were all cancelled until further notice, as was the Saudi Olympics (what?), scheduled to have taken place at the end of March.

Interestingly, and indeed surprisingly to me anyway, it seems that even in so tightly-controlled a country as this, misinformation and disinformation found its way in, and people were arrested for spreading false information. Of course, that might have been false as in, the Palace is reporting lower numbers than there are, or something, but even so, given that maybe you could have had your tongue pulled out for such a crime possibly, it shows how passionate some people were about spreading what they believed to be the truth. Not at all surprisingly, no information is available on who or how many were arrested, what happened to them or if they were even seen again.

Rather oddly, again to me anyway, is that while other countries were putting together special packages of pandemic assistance to help those who had lost their jobs due to Covid, and in a country as filthy rich as Saudi Arabia, the King was busily cancelling the cost-of-living payment and RAISING the level of VAT! And I mean raising! Like, tripling from 5% to 15%! Might as well just drive your people out into the desert and let them die, Your Majesty! It'd be quicker. King Salman also cut public spending and seemed to think that the fall in oil prices, leading to a deficit in the Royal budget, should be taken out on his people. Would it not have made more sense to, I don't know, sell a few of your Bentleys or a bunch of horses, your Kingship? No? What's that big guy with the sword coming towards me... oh well, I guess you know your own people, sorry I mentioned it.

As history has shown before with the Black Death, power, status, wealth and privilege are no protection against the plague, and accordingly the Royal Court was infected, with a reported (but not confirmed) 150 members of the Royal Family falling ill. From what I read, the Saudi Royal Family numbers up to 15,000 members, though the more important ones comprise about 2,000. Even so, that's a reasonably high percentage, indicating that perhaps the Royal Court may have been  placing more of its trust in Allah than in face masks and social distancing. In the first week of April the case numbers had rocketed to around 3,000, almost doubling each week.

It should be understood of course that in an absolute monarchy details are hard to confirm, and information is tightly controlled. The last thing the King wants, presumably, is for his people to start believing that he is not in control, which would surely threaten his standing. Perhaps even factions within his own Court might endeavour to take advantage of what would be seen as weakness. I don't know this, but if we use history as a guide, it's usually the case: those closest to the monarch are the ones he or she need fear the most, as they are just waiting for their chance to seize power from him or her, assert their own claim to the throne. How this works, if it does, in the Saudi Royal Court I have no clue, I admit, but it does set you thinking.

Anyway, the point is that figures coming out of Saudi Arabia never could and never can be trusted; as you can see above, even now the deaths reported vary wildly between the official figures released and those calculated and reported by an independent (western) source, the Economist. So we can never be certain of the true figure, and as the pandemic raged across the world Saudi Arabia was accused of minimising the figures, downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak. This led to a mass exodus by American diplomats in July, as - official - case numbers reached 100,000. Strangely, it was at this point that the King ordered the lifting of all restrictions, effectively ending the lockdown, though mask wearing and social distancing continued to be enforced.

[Trollheart]

Chapter III: Trumpocalypse: An American Genocide

While it would be fair to say that few if any countries met the Pandemic with an adequate response, this is not too surprising. Covid was, after all, something entirely new to the entire world. There had not been a proper pandemic really of this nature since the early twentieth century, and everything else we had experienced, from Ebola and Bird Flu to Foot-and-Mouth and SARS paled in comparison. This virus was virulent, racing across the globe like someone had lit a touch paper on a very long fuse, and it burned everything in its path. But while some countries made a mess of their response, others actively helped the virus propagate by both trying to ignore or deny its existence, and politicising it. You'll not be in the least surprised to hear that the primary culprit here was the United States of America.

Under the Trump administration, hundreds of thousands of Americans died who need not have; people were not only not given the right information to help protect them, they were lied to, and, in a tragic twist, believed the lies and began spreading them themselves, acting almost as a secondary virus, the virus of misinformation and disinformation, a concerted effort to twist and deny reality, assert some sort of stupid idea of independence and freedom, treating a pathogen as if it were a sentient being, and punishing those who believed in the science and were trying to save lives. America was not of course the only country where Covid information was corrupted and contorted out of all shape, and where conspiracy theorists screamed and foamed and dribbled about all the things and people involved in trying to take people's freedoms, but it was the epicentre of such drivel, and as such, its citizens reaped the whirlwind their president and his cronies had sown early in the days of the first cases.

This major article will explore how and why that happened, the effect, not only on America but on the world, its ramifications for future pandemics or outbreaks, its political fallout and of course the human cost. Don't expect an unbiased write-up: you can't varnish the truth out of existence, and we all saw - and some of us experienced first hand - the bungled effort by the Republican Party to pretend the virus didn't exist, and I don't intend to pull any punches when laying blame squarely at their feet, and at those of their master. Trump and his band of, let's be brutally honest here, killers, are not the only ones who have to shoulder the blame for over a million American deaths (a responsibility they of course deny and tried to shift towards the incoming administration) - there were plenty of fringe groups, far-right militia, non-elected officials, school boards, police departments... it goes on, but let's just say there's a lot of blame, and a lot of shame, to go around.

However, before I launch into this endeavour, I will of course, as always, go back to where it all began, and I don't mean 2016, when the most unlikely election result since perhaps the rise of Barack Obama set the scene for all but state-sanctioned murder three years later. It's not certain by any means that had another Republican candidate won the presidency instead of Trump that the same thing would not have happened, but it's hard to believe it would have had the public support it did in what we must, I suppose, call the Age of Trump, though I'd rather refer to it as the Age of Idiocracy. So if we, for now, hold one man personally responsible for all those deaths, and for the spread of the disease on a unbelievable scale, to say nothing of the other human cost - black people shot almost out of hand, women reduced to objects, the rise of the far-right from the shadows and American democracy literally attacked - then it is surely necessary that we know our man. Where did he come from? How did he rise to the status of the most powerful man on the planet and all but manage to overthrow the government of his country? And why and how did he get away with it?

[Trollheart]

Part I: Conman-in-Chief: From the Boardroom to the Oval Office

I: Genesis of a Grifter: The Worm in the Big Apple

Despite his repeated claims on his reality show that he was an ordinary guy, Donald J. Trump was born into wealth and privilege. His grandfather, Frederick (originally Friedrich, a Bavarian German) made his money in the Alaska Gold Rush, but not as a prospector. He began a tradition that would persist through his descendants to today, one of being involved in the service industry, of making his money off the sweat of others. While hopeful miners panned for gold in the Alaskan wastes, they had to eat, and they had to sleep, and Frederick Trump provided both - for a price, of course. There is, to be fair, nothing wrong with this; I wrote about men who were big in the Transcontinental Railroad who did the same thing. Not everyone went to California to dig for gold, and I have no idea what sort of man Frederick Trump was, but it's well known what his son was like. Frederick did not die poor, and his wealth was passed on to his wife, who then had a son, named after his own father.

Fred Trump used his father's inheritance to set up what is today known globally as the Trump Organization. Fred got into real estate, which would be the cornerstone of the family's wealth and power into the twenty-first century, and probably beyond. He married Mary MacLeod, a Scottish emigree in 1936 and they had a son, Lucifer, sorry Donald. He was born a week before midsummer's day in 1946. While I want to resist making this a hatchet job, as I could, I will report the facts as I learn them, and it seems that from the very start Donald was enrolled in a private school, in fact one where his father sat on the board of governors. With behavioural problems surfacing at an early age he was sent to a military school to straighten him out, this being the New York Military Academy, where the young man suddenly found to his dismay that things which had been done for him previously - such as making his bed, shining his shoes - were tasks he now had to perform. His brutal side, already coming to the fore, was demonstrated when he hazed a cadet so severely that it became necessary to remove him from his student command and transfer him to another.

His university education began at Fordham University in 1964, however it would appear his time there was less than salubrious, as he transferred a mere two years later and now it's said the school does not recognise his time there, nor does he acknowledge that he ever went there. He ended up at Wharton School of Business and Commerce of the University of Pennsylvania, but though he did stay to make graduation from there, again his time must not have been very special there, as in 2015 he had his lawyer sue all his colleges and high schools if they should release his academic record, and this would have been as he made his bid for President, so can't imagine they would have been glowing reports.

He managed to avoid service in Vietnam, and while it's certainly not my place to sit here in comfort in my bedroom and rail at young men for not wanting to die in a stupid war of ideologies that had nothing to do with them, it is rich that on the campaign trail Trump should them make his infamous claim about candidate the late John McCain not being a proper war hero as he was taken prisoner. But then, that always seemed to be - and to an extent, still seems to be - the case with Donald Trump: one rule for him and one rule for everyone else. It's also hard not to sneer at the image of other men, possibly his college friends, if he had any, dying in the paddy fields of Indochina while he began wheeling and dealing in real estate with his father, already worth the equivalent today of a million dollars by the time he had graduated.

In 1971 he moved to Manhattan, and quickly became head of the Trump Organization, then known as the Elizabeth Trump & Son. One can only speculate and never be sure, but given his innate disdain for women and his unmanageable ego, it seems likely that he was eager to push his own name to the front as soon as possible, and remove what he would have seen as his lower status as the son of the boss, in fact eliminating her entirely. In 1978 he began to get involved in hotels, and, another part of his business which would be  inseparable from his buildings, kickbacks and bribes. He in fact managed to get the Grand Hyatt Hotel built by convincing the city to give him and his investors a 40-year tax break, for which the city would receive a percentage of the profits. I don't know too much about building regulations or planning permission or whatever, but that sounds like a bribe to me.

His next project was the world-famous/infamous Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, a building which stands as a monument to his excess and boasting, with more gold in it than perhaps the late and not lamented Saddam Hussein's royal palace. In 1976 he met the woman who was to become his first wife, Ivana Zeinickova, from Czechoslovakia, today the Czech Republic. She was a model, and the two soon became the golden couple of the New York society scene. Ivana had three children, Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric. All would end up playing major roles, not only in the Trump Organization, but in their father's later presidential run and then in his administration. However if Ivana expected this womanising misogynist (sorry; I have to have some leeway here, don't I? And it's the truth, we all know it) to remain faithful she was barking up the wrong tree. When her husband cheated on her with another model, they began divorce proceedings, finally separating in 1991 with a twenty million settlement on her side. If there's one thing Trump loves it's money, so I can't imagine it was anything like an amicable split.

Two years later there was a fourth addition to the Trump clan, a girl called Tiffany (could this be because Trump Tower stands opposite the famous jewellers? You decide) and Donald decided it might be best if they got married, so in 1993 Marla Maples became Marla Trump, perhaps foolishly believing she would be the one. She was not, of course. Before the turn of the millennium she was out, and he was moving on to his third - and so far, current - wife. Can there be something, I wonder, in the fact that two of the three future Mrs. Trumps have been immigrants from eastern Europe? Ivana was, as noted, a Czech, and Melania came from Slovenia. Hmm. Melania Knauss became wife number three in 2005 and gave Trump his fifth child, Barron.

It seems that Trump's business deals, despite what he (or rather, ghost writers employed by him) would have you believe about his acumen, were characterised by two main points: riding over anyone he had to in order to get what he wanted and often leaping before he looked, ending up losing money on big projects that became money pits or white elephants. In 1984 he bought a huge property in Atlantic City which he named Harrah's at Trump Plaza. In 1993 he expanded it by buying the surrounding buildings, including hotels, and in 2011 tried to expand it again but had exhausted his funds, leading to the place closing down three years later. The Trump Taj Mahal, costing twice its budget, remained in operation for about a year before going bankrupt. It's still open now but under a vastly restructured deal under which Trump had to give away most of his stake, and it still shut down in 2016, eventually being bought out by Hard Rock International.

He then fought to have residents removed from an apartment block near Central Park so that he could build his tower blocks there, but he lost the legal battle. He would later buy Central Park outright. He also fought against resident in west Manhattan who stood in the way of his plans for a twelve-skyscraper property to be called Television City, and had to admit defeat here too. Tales of his golf course in Scotland, and the opposition to it in his mother's native country are also well-known, and it seems everywhere he goes as a property developer Trump has little compunction about stepping on the little guy, furious when that little guy fights back.

He likes to present himself as a super businessman, the tycoon of tycoons, the man who can get any deal done on his terms, but the reality is that Trump has filed for bankruptcy no less than four times over a thirteen-year period to 2004. In order to reduce his debts he has had to sell his airline and his yacht. Like a bad penny though, he turned back up and remade his fortune, and in 1985 he purchased what has become perhaps the most famous property in Florida after Disney World, Mar-a-Lago. The story of its purchase is typical Trump: offering the trust which held it 15 million dollars and being turned down, he did what he always does: he tried to strongarm the owners. He bought adjacent land and threatened to build a resort there specifically to block the beach view from Mar-a-Lago, which pushed the price of the resort down, allowing him to snap it up for - estimates vary - either five or eight million less than he had originally offered. Adding in what it cost for the land purchase - about two million - he still saved at least three million, and due perhaps to his presidency it's now estimated the estate has risen in value by a factor of at least fifteen.

There is ample evidence to suggest Trump delays paying his debts or finds ways to avoid them, and it's a matter of record both that he fought for years to prevent the release of his tax records - a successful bid only occurring this year - and that he paid a paltry few thousand dollars in tax in 2021. He opened organisations such as the Trump Foundation and Trump University (but, perhaps oddly enough, not the Church of Trump), all of which are now under investigation, or have been issued legal challenges and demanded recompense for losses. As of 2020 Trump was in the hole for two billion, mostly to Deutsche Bank, UBS (a Swiss bank) and Bank of China.

So how in the name of all blue holy hell did this multiple loser and conman become the 45th, and now the 47th President, of the USA? Ah, thereby hangs a tale...

[Trollheart]

II: It's Not Necessarily the Cream that Rises to the Top

Although Donald Trump had been involved with public features such as the Miss Universe Contest/Miss Teen USA and the ill-fated United States Football League, the collapse of which he was largely responsible for, as well as buying an airline and trying to remake the Tour de France in, literally, his name, he was probably best known before his presidential bid and four-year tenure for his reality TV show, The Apprentice. The brainchild of producer Mark Burnett, the show appealed to Trump's immense vanity and self-confidence and arrogance, essentially becoming a free advertisement for he and his products, while also showing the world how rich and successful (sic) he was. His legendary catchphrase, "You're fired" is probably about as well-known now as, for instance, Bruce Forsyth's "Nice to see you, to see you nice" or Simon Cowell's "It'a a no from me" over here.

The series was very successful, spawning imitations as far as Australia and the UK, and even we Irish had a go, but whether you like reality TV or not, the point is that this is where people really began to see Trump as a genuine personality. Up till then, everyone knew his name - vaguely - and knew he was rich, but other than that he was pretty much yesterday's news, a sort of Howard Hughes figure: he had been big in his time, but now nobody knew what he was doing or where he was, or cared. The Apprentice thrust him squarely back into the limelight, and it is without question this resurgence in notoriety and the raising of his public profile that prepared him for his run for the White House, the first of which would fail miserably.

Trump does not seem to have been committed to or loyal to any political party, changing his affiliation four times over two decades. Beginning as a Republican in 1987, he switched to Ross Perot's Reform Party in 1999, then to the Democrats in 2001 and finally back to the Republicans in 2007. Since becoming president, he has repeatedly lambasted those within the party whom he sees as weak, not upholding the traditions of the GOP (or, more accurately, not conforming to his wishes) and called them RINOS, or Republicans In Name Only. There hag been talk of his starting a new party, but this never came to pass.

But back in 1988 he was already trying to get on the path to power, asking to be put on the ticket as George H.W. Bush's running mate, a request which was laughingly denied. Perhaps because of that, perhaps not, he joined Perot's independent Reform Party, under which banner he then made a bid for the White House in 2000. Within a month or two he had withdrawn, ostensibly due to infighting within the party, particularly revolving around his own personal dislike for Pat Buchanan, their expected nominee for the presidency, but according to other sources his run had been merely a publicity stunt to promote yet another book he had had no hand at all in writing. Following his withdrawal he became involved in The Apprentice, which sufficiently raised his public profile to allow him to mount a serious presidential bid sixteen years later. Trump had arrogantly predicted that if he ran for President, he would win. On this occasion, he did not run and therefore in fairness could not be said to have been proven wrong, and indeed, to all our horror and amazement, his prediction would actually come true the next time he made a bid for the White House.

The election in 2008 of America's first black president seems to have marked a turning point for him. His well-documented racism and bigotry led him to consider a bid in 2012, before Obama won a second term, but he decided against that. However once Obama's two terms were up, he was ready to take over.


Having again switched allegiance, from the Reform Party to the Democrats, Trump shuffled his deck again and came up with the Republicans for a second time, under whose banner he would contest, and win, the 2016 Presidential election. Even at that, he continued to jump from camp to camp like some fat orange Mexican jumping bean, calling himself independent - or at least, affiliated with no party, two years after rejoining the GOP, and then a year after that settling back in the arms of red power and the right wing of American politics. Whether he was toying with his public perception or not I suppose we will never know, but he announced in 2011 he would not be running, as Barack Obama won his second term. Ignoring advice from friends to run for governor of New York in 2013, Trump failed to renew his contract for The Apprentice in 2015, showing he was about to concentrate on a new presidential bid. Four months later he made his announcements. British bookmakers Ladbrokes set his odds of winning at 150-1. Few would take that bet.

From the beginning, as expected, Trump played to the gallery, and that gallery was packed with his supporters, the kind of people who still believed the Civil War had been lost, that certain kinds of folks didn't deserve to be in America, that women were second-class citizens at best, and had, generally, not only the shakiest grasp of politics and world events, but of America's geographical position in the world, leading to some hilariously stupid comments later on. Trump made his infamous speech about "cleaning out the swamp" and "building the wall", and made derogatory comments about his neighbours to the south that infuriated Mexicans everywhere, as well as Democrats and even some Republicans, though most of the latter tacitly supported his ideas, perhaps not courageous (or stupid) enough to say these things out loud while still thinking them, rather like pushing someone into the line of fire while shouting "I'm right behind you!" from some considerable, and safe, distance.

His comments began to hurt him where he hated to be hurt: his pocket. His Miss Universe pageant was dropped by all networks (resulting, of course, in legal action from him), NASCAR ended their deal with him, other sponsors withdrew from associating themselves with his name, including megastore Macys and various Mexican TV channels. But he was only getting started. Next in an incredibly hurtful and bigoted stream of rhetoric were Muslims, whom Trump intended to single out for special surveillance if he were elected, creating a national database of Muslims in the USA and having mosques watched; he then went further, declaring he would ensure that a total ban went in place to deny Muslims entry to the country. These remarks drew sharp criticism and condemnation, not only from Democrats, but from outside of the US too, with France and the UK, two countries with large Muslim populations, stating their shock and outrage that such a notion could be considered, never mind proposed.

It is, however, no surprise to find that he walked the Republican primaries, beating off (not literally, but then, who knows what this man would do for power?) rivals such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson, and emerging easily as the hope of the Republican party to take back the White House after eight years of Democrat power. His path to the presidency, however, would not be so easy, and he was easily the outsider as former President Bill Clinton's wife, and former Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, was largely touted by media outlets and polls as a shoo-in for the position. It may very well have been her own arrogance and complacency of her party that ultimately lost them the election, but we'll get to that. Right now, Donald Trump was riding and rising on a tide of anti-this and ant-that comments, his slogan, "Make America Great Again" resonating with people who had had enough of Democrats, and a policy under Obama which had pretty much under delivered. Even committed Democrat voters were disappointed, after the initial euphoria of having had the first African-American president in history elected, how poorly the administration had been seen to conduct its affairs.

You can't really accuse Trump of telling the truth much of the time, or being in any way honest, but perhaps one of his most telling comments (which he probably didn't even realise was essentially telling people he could not be trusted) was made after the last of his opponents dropped out of the race for nominee, leaving him as the presumptive candidate. He said "You've been hearing me say it's a rigged system, but now I don't say it anymore because I won. It's true. Now I don't care." This statement takes, as they say, a little unpacking. On the face of it, he's saying the system is rigged, but since it's rigged in my favour I don't care whether it's rigged. Could he also be saying it's not rigged, that I was just saying that in order to get elected? Or is it just as simple as his final three words, almost a slogan or even epitaph for his later presidential term: I don't care?
 
And then the fun really began.

Rallies for Trump swiftly became notorious for their violence, intolerance and clashes between sides. Far from discouraging or condemning such actions, Trump actively spurred his people on, at one point urging them to "beat the crap out of" protesters, and winking that he would pay all the legal fees. He began using his "drain the swamp" phrase, which rather quickly became replaced by another, more dangerous one, as he opined that his rival, Hilary Clinton, should be imprisoned, and the chant of "Lock her up!" resounded across arenas and fields and meeting halls whenever Trump was in attendance. At one point this changed to "lock them all up", with no real justification for, or reason provided for the intended incarceration.

However, no matter how loud his supporters chanted, no matter the banners and the slogans, the lies and the incitements to violence, Donald Trump did not have what most presidential candidates have, the support of previous presidents belonging to his party. Neither of the two Bush presidents would endorse him, and both said they would not vote for him, nor would Florida governor Jeb Bush, In fact, following the January 6 attack on the Capitol building in 2021, both Bush and Obama would come out against Trump and his supporters, decrying his behaviour and his inciting of the riot when he couldn't take defeat like a normal human being. Of course, by now he would have the Republican party by the throat, and there would be few who would not support him, as the party began to implode and fascism grew in its heart.

With a campaign of soundbites, empty promises and again playing to the gallery - and with apparent assistance from America's old enemy, Russia, Trump took the electoral vote (but not the popular one) and won in what was pretty much a landslide: 306 votes to Clinton's 232. Bucking the trend and proving both that America has some of the dumbest voters in the known world, and also that the Democrats had failed to pay him the proper respect as a challenger, Donald J. Trump was elected the 45th President of the USA on November 9 2016, and after eight years the White House was again red. Soon, this would become a literal statement.

[Trollheart]

III: The Lunatics Take Over the Asylum: QAnon,The Proud Boys and the Rise of the Far Right

It all started, apparently, as many good things do, with pizza. However, this was anything but a good thing, and you won't find Dominos or Papa John's or any major pizza chain wanting to be connected with what became known as Pizzagate. I'm not entirely sure why every major conspiracy or political event - and even some outside of the arena of politics - end up with a "gate" on the end. I know it has to do with the most famous (until recently) political scandal involving a sitting president, but why everything becomes Millygate or Borisgate or Votergate or whatever, I'm not sure. In the end, it's not really important, as that's just the accepted name this, one of the first major conspiracy theories to grip America with any real power, was given.

Pizzagate began when an anonymous poster on the imageboard 4Chan, who went by the name of Q, purported to be an insider posting from deep within the Clinton administration, and supposedly leaked sensitive coded information that claimed the Democrats were sexually abusing children in Satanic rites with, um, a pizza parlour as their base. Okay, okay: I know we've all heard it and you have to have had your brain replaced with a pizza to believe it, but unfortunately many did. This later evolved (or devolved) into Pedogate, which removed the overt political and American element from the conspiracy theory and widened it into a global sex trafficking and pedophilia ring operated across the world by "the elite". These "elite" included movie stars, pop stars, bankers, Jews (of course), Democrats (of course) and basically anyone the loons could think of to prop up their quickly-discredited theory.

Identifying a shop in the Comet Ping Pong Pizza chain as the base for this alleged cabal brought danger and death threats to its staff and owners, with one lunatic actually entering the place with a rifle to "conduct his own investigation". He ended up getting four years, but believed what he had been doing was the right thing. The conspiracy then spread to other pizza shops and unrelated businesses in the area, still without a shred of proof. Pizzagate, completely debunked and proven a totally fictitious story almost better than something Lynda la Plante or Stephen King could dream up, nevertheless persists in America like a turd that will not go down the U-bend. To date, there are over a million messages on social media tagged with its hashtag.

This, then, was the beginning of QAnon, who would play such a large role in Donald Trump's attempts both to convince the American people he had won an election which he clearly lost, to resist the vaccine for Covid that would have saved their lives, and which would lead, eventually and tragically, to the steps of the Capitol Building, where an armed mob would attempt to destroy democracy and install a dictator.

Through high-profile supporters in the government and the entertainment industry (I was surprised to read that Roseanne Barr, whose show I used to enjoy, was one of the propagators of this dangerous, lunatic nonsense: I'll never look at her the same way again) the idea of QAnon spread like dark wildfire, touching all corners of mainstream and underground media, and finding a particularly receptive audience in what became known as "fake news" sites such as Infowars, Breitbart and, for a long time, the grand-daddy of all mouthpieces for the Republican party, Fox News. Trump of course latched on to what QAnon were saying; everything tied in with his base, and while he may or may not have believed in the child-sex ideas being propagated (he's just thick enough to make that a possibility) it certainly helped him take control of the far right narrative, and provided him with all but an invisible army to carry out his agenda.

The accusation probably can't be levelled at Trump that he communicated directly with these far-right groups, or even that he endorsed them, but he certainly did not disavow them. In fact, during the first presidential debate of 2019, as he faced Joe Biden, he was invited to tell his followers to stand down; he deliberately misspoke and told them to "stand by", which of course they took as a rallying cry. But back to QAnon. Not terribly surprisingly, the Church in America was generally on their side (I say was, because once the administration changed and these eejits fell out of favour, most likely the pastors and vicars and other clergy who supported them, either tacitly or overtly, melted back into the shadows, whistling with their hands in their cassocks) as many of their beliefs were in line with the more fundamental Christian ones, including homophobia and misogyny, and the old chestnut, anti-semitism. And of course Russia and China did all they could to promote division in the USA by supporting and spreading QAnon and other far-right groups.

And then in January of 2020, Covid arrived in America.

[Trollheart]

PART TWO:: Immunity from Reality - Trump Botches America's Response to the Pandemic

"We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine." - President Trump, January 22 2020

Despite Kellyanne Conway's smug claim that "Coronavirus would never reach America", it ended up being the country with the most cases (over one hundred million) and deaths (just over a million), and certainly was the nation where the response was completely and utterly mishandled as the President attempted political sleight of hand by tricking people into thinking Covid was not real, even as they died in their hundreds of thousands, even as his own White House became a plague zone, even as he himself contracted the virus. By the end of his presidency it could be perhaps said with some confidence that though Trump himself got sick from the virus, its biggest victim, in his case, was his second term as President of the United States. His mishandling of, and determination to ignore the Covid-19 pandemic, to pretend it wasn't anything as bad as it was, to denigrate those who had died and shrug that none of the deaths were his fault, ultimately sealed his fate as a then one-term president.

Initially, to be fair, the reaction by the US was adequate, as you would certainly expect it to have been. When Covid-19 was declared a PHEIC (Public Health Emergency of International Concern) on January 30, and on the same day the first case of person-to-person transmission of the virus surfaced in America, Trump arranged the evacuation of Americans from Wuhan. Was this a good idea? Wuhan was not at the time under quarantine, yet America was unprepared and unable to properly screen those coming back from what was now known to be the epicentre, the ground zero of the outbreak. Again though, to be equitable here, every other country did the same: nobody wanted their people left in a "plague zone". Trump's administration banned flights to China, which was probably the right thing to do. As early as April the USA had already become the country with the highest amount of deaths, 20,000, surpassing Europe's top hotspot, Italy.

Trump was opposed to the idea of "shutting down America", so no national lockdown ever took place, each state deciding for itself whether they would impose restrictions, and what those restrictions would be. Inevitably, those states controlled by Republican governors remained open while the "blue" states, where Democrats held office, mostly instigated lockdowns and "stay-at-home" orders. Also inevitably, it would be the "red" states, the ones who had refused to implement any sort of quarantine or preventative procedures who would see the most cases, the worst hospital surges, and the most deaths. By May, cases had reached a million and deaths had quintupled to 100,000 as the pandemic raged across America, all but welcomed in by a large number of states. Trump's response to the advice from the WHO was to withdraw from the organisation, bleeding it of critical financial resources when it desperately needed them the most. The ramparts were being manned. America would stand alone. America would fall alone.

While the rest of the world was, mostly, panicking but taking the necessary measures, and the planet began to resemble the science fiction novel The Quiet Earth, America remained open for business. Despite frenzied requests for nationwide shutdowns to help contain the disease, the Trump administration allowed huge spectator events to go ahead, more people to get infected and take their new pal home with them to infect more and more of their family and friends. To nobody's surprise, cases kept steadily climbing, and it did not take long until there were five million cases in the United States. In fact, it was only August, meaning the cases had again increased by a factor of five in less than four months. A month later there were 200,000 Americans dead.

And then a vengeful wave of Covid hit the seat of power as the White House became the centre of a superspreader which almost took out the most powerful man on the planet.

Trump's disdain for face masks, a basic requirement in the fight against Covid-19, led to most of his staff not wearing one, either to get on his good side or to avoid the ridicule heaped on them by those who thought they didn't need them. As a result, when Trump flouted all health regulations and continued campaign rallies as he attempted to win a second term, while his rival, Joe Biden, called a halt to his, and when a major outdoor event was held in the Rose Garden to confirm the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the writing was on the wall. At the confirmation event, there was no social distancing, hardly any mask wearing and plenty of close contact, resulting in many high-profile cases, including the President himself, and his First Lady. Despite this, contact tracing was not initiated and offers by the CDC to assist were repeatedly declined.

Despite his bravado and trying to tough it out, Trump was hospitalised on October 2. Prior to this, he continued to act as he had always done, with arrogance and a complete lack of empathy or concern for anyone, holding rallies, attending a presidential debate, and attending gatherings while apparently quite aware that he had tested positive. Everyone in his orbit began dropping like flies: he was like the 21st century equivalent of Typhoid Mary, though his diagnosis was swathed in security, lies and dismissals. Eventually Trump had to be taken to Walter Reed Military Hospital for urgent treatment (though his true condition was never officially released, shrouded in secrecy like just about anything that could be spun as negative about him) and after receiving treatment not available to the ordinary American, returned to the White House to publicly downplay Covid and tell people not to be afraid of it.

Oh yes. It's hard to believe, but I remember it well. After returning from the hospital he very deliberately and defiantly removed his mask and spoke to reporters and staff and media unmasked, with no idea whether he was cured or not. He claimed he was now "immune", one of many unsubstantiated and quite insane claims he made during his presidency - nobody has ever so far been found to be immune to Covid. Anyone else might have learned from his ordeal - Governor Chris Christie, who was at one point close to death after the Rose Garden event - certainly did, apologising for ridiculing mask wearers and asking everyone to get vaccinated and wear a face mask - but not Trump. No humility in the man at all, he probably felt like now he was in a position to say he had survived Covid (he hadn't; if it hadn't been for the expensive, experimental and exclusive treatment he received, it's possible he could have died) and could dismiss it the way he dismissed anything else that didn't fit in with his own personal narrative, or anything that made him look weak.

I won't lie, and I damn well won't apologise for saying it, but I truly hoped the man would die. Not only because it would show his followers he was not immortal or invincible, not only because it would remove the threat of a second Trump term, but because it might, just possibly, make his blind and literally dumb (not in the speaking sense but in the mental sense) public stop and think for a minute, and realise that if "someone like Trump" could die from Covid, then, despite his downplaying of the seriousness of the virus, they could die too, and then maybe they might start taking it seriously and fucking do something to protect themselves. Sadly, either God does not exist or was busy those few days, and the bastard pulled through, which only strengthened the belief of his MAGA crowd and his Republican base that there was nothing this man could not do, and that if he could kick Covid's ass, well hell, shoot and damn, they could too!

In that, of course, they would prove to be totally, tragically and fatally wrong.

On what would in fact prove to be his last official day as the President, Election Day 2020, November 3, Trump decided he wanted to have a big party, and like a fat, bullying, selfish child who has no interest in the safety of others, he broke all Covid rules and threw a lavish reception for hundreds of his staff and cronies, with again no masking and no social distancing. In the days following his defeat at the hands of Joe Biden, Trump's staff and those who had been at the party began to fall like dominoes in a long line. Many of the diagnoses, such as that of his chief advisor Mark Meadows, were kept secret until they could no longer be.

[Trollheart]

II: State of Emergency: the Covid Pandemic hits the USA.

Surprisingly, it seems hard to find a list of reactions, or the lack of them, to the pandemic by state, but I'm going to do my best to list each state in alphabetical order and see how the virus developed there, and what, if any precautions were taken, how many cases and deaths resulted, and how the population reacted. This might be a little shaky, but we'll see how we go.

Note: these are just going to be basic sketches: I'll go into much more detail later on in the article. Also, I'm not about to do fifty states in one post, so I'll break it up over the course of the article. Got some books to read, too.

Notes on categories: Apart from the ones I used in the first part for individual countries, some of which obviously don't apply to states, I've added two new ones. Leadership level refers, naturally, to how the state responded through its governor. How did he or she face the crisis, what precautions (if any) did they take and how did they help or hinder the spread of the virus? This is distinct from Reaction Level, as the population may not have gone along with the rules - if any - implemented, like Gretchen Whitmer's attempts to keep Michigan safe, despite themselves. So a governor may not always be responsible for how his or her state reacted, though most times they probably will be. Leadership level goes from 1 to 10, 10 being perfect and 1 being they might as well not have been in the state. Death rate is on a slightly different scale, counted out of 50, as there are 50 states, so the state with the lowest death rate overall will be marked as 50/50 while the one with the highest will be (anyone?) 1/50. In any cases where this "position on the leaderboard" is not available, I'll just score than from A to D, with the obvious correlation that A is in the higher bracket, B is high but not as high as others, C is low but not the lowest and D is among the lowest.

Score will be an average of the Leadership reaction and the actual state reaction; if both are not available then I'll use what I have.




Red or Blue State? Red
Governor: Kay Ivey (Republican)
Cases:  1.65 million
Deaths: 23,692
Date of first lockdown: April 3, though it's hard to be sure, as Gov. Ivey consistently refused to order a lockdown (or, as she referred to it, a "shelter in place order") and counties were more or less left to decide among themselves how and when to shut down. Overall, most of them seem to have taken this decision, independently, around March 27, until she finally gave in and bit the bullet. Unfortunately, not literally.
Duration:  27 days
Number of lockdowns: 1
Leadership level: 3
Death rate:  2/50
Reaction level:  Unknown, but I think in general they were let down by their governor and I don't see any reports of protests, disobedience of mask mandates or anything, which kind of surprises me. Then again, they weren't exactly rushing to get a jab were they? Pity I can't find out more about this state.
Vaccine uptake: < 35%
Score: 40

ALABAMA

Alabama being of course one of the Deep South states, is and probably always will be red, so therefore if you divide America along lines of political ideologies, and place on one side of that line the "blue" states, which were more responsive to efforts to curb the pandemic and more likely to listen to science, and on the other side the "red" states, who convinced themselves it was either all a hoax or that their freedom was being threatened, Alabama would of course fall squarely on the side of the latter. It would then naturally follow that cases, and deaths, would have been high here. Let's look into this first of the red states and see how they met the challenge.

On February 4, possibly (though I can't say for sure) in line with the President's dismissal of Covid as "one person coming in from China", the Alabama governor, Kay Ivey, delivered her "State of the State" address (which I can only guess but would imagine is similar to a smaller version of the president's "State of the Union" speech) and declined to make any mention of Covid. Near the end of the month plans to have had one of the facilities in Anniston used as a quarantine centre were suddenly cancelled, and the state shrugged and advised its citizens to get a "flu shot" and "take normal precautions". Of course, at this point there was no vaccine, so a flu shot, while always advisable in any situation, would have been less than useless against the new virus. As March closed in, and despite hundreds of cases in ten states now, and eighteen deaths, Ivey sneered that there was "no need to panic, and no need to close down large events."

Friday the thirteenth came hard for the state as it recorded its first case, and hard on its heels six more. Ivey decided, finally, to declare a state of emergency and shut down all schools for a month, and within a few days was recommending smaller social gatherings, working from home and flexible hours - but only for state employees. No recommendations or mandates were given to the ordinary working people. Acting independently of a governor who seemed to be doing pretty much nothing, counties began to make their own rules, Birmingham issuing a stay-at-home order for a week, Tuscaloosa implementing a curfew, again to last one week or so. Even as late as the end of March, when cases in the USA had reached over 80,000 cases and with her beloved president grudgingly acknowledging the reality and recognising Covid as a pandemic (and trying to claim credit for having predicted it, no surprise there), Ivey refused to shut down the state, again sneering "We are not New York, or Louisiana or California." No. Those states would, in the main, fare much better because of early reaction, instead of standing there like a toddler with her hands on her hips, red in the face and scowling in temper.

Despite all "non-essential" businesses closing on March 27 Ivey again refused to implement a statewide shut-down, passing the buck to local authorities and admitting she would "not object" to them taking their own precautions. Montgomery responded by putting in place an indefinite curfew, but despite some basic attempts to help medical staff continue to man facilities, and with Covid outbreaks in six nursing homes throughout the state, by the beginning of April Alabama had climbed to the unwanted spot of fourth-highest number of deaths by state, with almost 150 people dead. Ivey finally gave in and passed a statewide stay-at-home order, to last to the end of the month. Cases continued to grow and people continued to die. By June there were a reported 31,000 cases and nearly 900 deaths. In July Ivey issued a mask mandate, but in August she allowed schools and universities to reopen, with a resultant 500 or more cases. By the end of the year, the state had reported 280,000 cases and 4,000 deaths.

As late as June of 2021 a mere 35% of the state had been vaccinated, leaving Alabama open to infections from what was then the newest variant, Delta. As of the time of writing, there have been over 1.5 million cases and over 20,000 deaths recorded.

[Trollheart]

ALASKA

Red or Blue State?
Governor: Mike Dunleavy (Republican)
Cases: 310.513
Deaths: 1,268
Date of first lockdown: N/A
Duration: N/A
Number of lockdowns: 0
Leadership level: 2
Death rate: B
Reaction level: Unknown
Vaccine uptake: 72%
Score: 35


The remoteness and small population of the northernmost US state may account for its low caseload and few deaths; much of Alaska is uninhabited, but it is a red state, so how did its governor react to the pandemic? Faster, it seems, than his counterpart in the south. Governor Mike Dunleavey closed public schools on March 13, restaurants, cinemas and public gyms and fitness centres on March 18 and required self-quarantine for any travellers arriving into the state on March 24. In May all restrictions were lifted. As of the time of writing, Alaska has reported over 310,000 cases and 1,200 deaths. This in fact puts it on a par with Alabama for cases, which slightly surprises me. However they are well ahead in terms of vaccination, with about 70% of the population having received at least one dose of the vaccine. Alaska does not seem to have instigated any sort of lockdown, though again this could be indicative of the much smaller population and how it is distributed. Let's look at that, in fact: okay that looks much, much worse. Alaska's total population is around 740,000, which means that slightly less than half of the state was infected, whereas Alabama has a population of just over 5 million, meaning only (!) a fifth, or twenty percent of Alabama was infected. As for the more important statistic,  deaths: 1,200 approx out of 740,000 is 0.16% while 24,000 out of 1,650,000 is 1.4%, so there was a larger percentage of deaths in AL but less cases than in AK. Which surely means that in Alaska, more people died who were infected than did in Alabama.

[Trollheart]

ARIZONA

Red or Blue State? Red
Governor: Doug Ducey (Republican)
Cases: 2.7 million
Deaths: 31,333
Date of first lockdown: March 31
Duration: 44 days
Number of lockdowns: 1
Leadership level: 1
Death rate: A
Reaction level: Unknown
Vaccine uptake: 75%
Score: 10


Another red state, among the reddest really, almost crimson you might say, and so destined to be one of those coloured the brightest when the map began to appear on television screens, showing infection rates and deaths across the country, the deeper the red the more in trouble that state was. Following more or less the path taken by Alabama (and probably other red states too, but I'm doing this alphabetically so haven't come across them yet) Governor Doug Ducey not only ruled out a lockdown but refused to limit social gatherings. Head of the Navajo Nation, Jonathan Nez, went ahead and declared a state of emergency for his own people. In mid-March the two Arizona universities announced they would provide online courses "where possible", which to me really doesn't say much at all. Despite the early action by Nez, by March 19 there were 14 cases of Covid in the Navajo Nation, 9 out of 22 tribes affected. Again, many counties began making their own arrangements as nothing was being done by the state. Tucson issued a closure order for businesses, extending to bars, restaurants, night clubs etc. Given that this order was enacted on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 20:00 was the last chance to get a drink, as everywhere closed until March 30.

Two days later, Ducey made a half-measure when he ordered the closure of facilities in any county with confirmed cases (like there would be any that would not fall within that criterion!) and laid down a few restrictions, but stopped well short of a lockdown, even as some fellow states were doing, and as most of Europe was already shut down. That very day, March 20, Arizona recorded its first death. It took a further ten days before Ducey finally issued the stay-at-home order, and by April he was already staggering re-opening efforts across the state. With 651 deaths and over 13,000 cases as the lockdown ended, Ducey passed an executive order preventing businesses from mandating mask wearing by their employees. He eventually reversed this a month later.

Heading for 28,000 cases and with nearly a thousand deaths, and with Arizona State University defying his order and insisting its students and faculty wear face masks, Ducey reversed his order and allowed the wearing of face masks, if required by businesses and institutions, but did not implement a statewide mandate. At the end of June the president rolled into town, maskless with a huge gathering of his fans and left the state struggling under a huge new caseload, nearly double figures for deaths and edging towards 100,000 cases, an increase of five times the previous figure. Trump was gone by now, but his Covid-dismissing stink remained long after Air Force One had winged its way back up into the blue Arizona sky. No let-up in July either, when Vice President Mike Pence arrived to finish the job his boss had started, and left eight Secret Service agents in Phoenix hospitals as he, too, fucked off back to Washington. Air Force Two departed the state as its bigger brother had, again trailing green sickly Covid smoke behind it.

By October, despite 19 cases in different ones, school remained open across the state. The death toll now stood at over 2,000 with over 112,000 cases. The man who must have been seen as the Angel of Death, even in the fiercely red state, made two more visitations, one to Tucson - where masks were not worn, despite pleas by the mayor - and one to Prescott, both of which were quickly hit with more cases. Trump attempted to lie his way out of this situation he had created by claiming that there had been a spike, but it was over, when in fact Arizona was burning in the flames of Covid. Not that he cared. And as if the four horsemen of the Apocalypse had decided Arizona was the place to be, the third uncaring idiot showed up in December.

Rudy Giuiliani, ex-mayor of New York and now Trump's lawyer, testified before the Arizona State Legislature for an energy-draining eleven hours, maskless, triggering the closure of the institution. Giuliani had already tested positive before testifying, and was well aware of the fact, but was more concerned with spreading his master's lies about the lost election than protecting the people who had, let's face it, voted for him. Despite having the highest virus spread in the entire country, Ducey again refused to instigate a lockdown as the state hurtled towards Christmas, the busiest time for shoppers and the time when people gather in groups, both at work and at home. A time Covid would spread even faster and more virulently. By the end of the year the state had reported over two million cases and was looking at deaths of around 32,000. Even at that, vaccination uptake was slow, with barely 35% having received a shot.

In an incredible statistic, at one point Arizona had more cases (remember, this is just one state, we're not talking about the whole of the USA, just one stupid refusenik state) than all of the European Union put together! This, despite having only one-sixtieth of the EU's population. That's quite an achievement, Doug! Trump must have been proud. Ducey was certainly a stubborn, arrogant and ignorant fool, but in some ways you have to feel sorry for him. Kind of. After the Pandemic he was attacked on both sides, with one group demanding his recall for not protecting the citizens enough, and another demanding the same for having protected them at all! Poor old Dougie: can't win huh? Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Which he didn't, and they were. Damned that is. Surprisingly perhaps, given that he was so blase about Covid, he escaped contracting it, or at least, I've read no accounts of his being infected. Can't have everything I suppose.

[Trollheart]

ARKANSAS

Red or Blue State? Red
Governor:  Asa Hutchinson (Republican)
Cases: 1 million
Deaths: 14,199
Date of first lockdown: N/A
Duration: N/A
Number of lockdowns: 0
Leadership level: 1
Death rate: C
Reaction level: 70
Vaccine uptake: 54%
Score: 15


Governor Asa Hutchinson began preparations for closing down schools on March 17, a week after a local pastor had managed to inadvertently infect most of his congregation, leading to the deaths of four people, one of which was contacted via tracing systems. Casinos were closed the same day as the schools, nursing homes began to report cases both in residents and health workers, and a USAF pilot tested positive at the Little Rock Air Force Base, necessitating the closure of the base for thirty days. Despite recording their first death on March 24, the state did not mandate a shutdown, though some businesses and institutions were ordered to close. Trump announced he expected America to "reopen for business" by April 12, but of course he both had no clue and didn't give a shit how many people died or got sick, as long as he got his way and could play the big man. Events however conspired against him; the virus had him in its sights, as already reported.

In April National Parks were closed to the public, but by May the state was again trying to reopen the businesses that had been closed, including the parks. By June there were 3,000 new cases thanks to the reopening, and in July more than 1,000 cases were reported on a single day. By September cases had rocketed to 80,000 with over 1,400 deaths recorded. The next month it passed the 100,000 mark with 1,700 deaths. Still no lockdown was considered by Hutchinson. Unsurprisingly, politicians began to fall to the disease, including the governor himself and the State Surgeon General. Always consider it darkly ironic when the man or woman who was, or should have been, telling you how to protect yourself caught the virus. And it happened with nearly every state, and many countries outside of the USA, though more frequent there for certain.

By June of the next year, 2021, Arkansas had not learned a single lesson, with less than 40% of its population vaccinated, and the state became the centre of a surge of Delta variant cases, forcing the mandating of masks in national parks, though still no lockdown. Far from it: in April, as cases spiked again, the state passed a law outlawing mask mandates, though in certain counties, as in most states, local government made their own arrangements for masking, particularly in Fayetteville and Little Rock. Christians put their trust entirely in God, again no surprise, as the Assembly voted for a resolution to prevent the governor restricting the observation of church services. As of March 2022 there have been almost 820,000 cases in Arkansas, with over 10,000 deaths.