Hits and Misses
HIT: The cancellation this year of Canonsburg’s Fourth of July parade, which is known for its epic length and for drawing visitors to the borough from near and far, is hardly something to feel good about. The coronavirus and its attendant shutdowns have laid waste to a whole host of summertime activities, from professional and amateur sports to concerts and festivals of all stripes. But we are still not yet at a point where a gathering on the scale of Canonsburg’s Fourth of July parade is safe. Even though it will not be happening this year, an institution as durable as the parade will almost certainly be back next year, and the celebration will be all the more lively due to its absence in 2020.
MISS: The Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus has been full of mixed signals and missed opportunities, and the United States is well behind many other nations in effectively containing the virus. But from all appearances we’re doing better than Brazil, which has become a COVID-19 hotspot. The South American nation has logged more than 300,000 cases and 20,000 deaths, and some health experts believe the rate of infection is 15 times higher than what has been reported. The mayor of Sao Paulo has said the city’s health system is “near collapse.” And yet Brazil’s populist president, Jair Bolsonaro, has dismissed the coronavirus as “a little flu,” and condemned officials for locking down parts of the country. There’s reason to fear Brazilians will pay a steep price for their country’s misbegotten leadership.
MISS: Though most of what President Trump says should be taken with a whole silo of salt, he made headlines this week when he claimed he was taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine to ward off the coronavirus. Trump, of course, has good reason to worry since some White House staffers have tested positive for the infection and he is an age group that has been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus. But Trump and his followers might want to have some second and third thoughts before they start wolfing it down. A study published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet found coronavirus patients who took the drug were more likely to die, and more likely to develop irregular heart rhythms that could lead to death. If there’s a miracle cure for the coronavirus, it almost certainly is not hydroxychloroquine.
HIT: If you watch any of the cable news networks, you’ve almost certainly seen pundits hunkered down in their dens, serving up whatever wisdom they have to offer with an array of books on shelves behind them. It is notable how many of those shelves have the books of Robert Caro on them. The master biographer is 84 and still plugging away on an eagerly-awaited fifth volume of his long-running series on President Lyndon Johnson. The Associated Press reported Friday that Caro has kept his nose to the grindstone despite the coronavirus, even though planned trips to Vietnam and Johnson’s presidential library in Texas have been delayed. When asked when the book will appear, Caro said, “It doesn’t matter how long a book takes, what matters is how long a book lasts.” Anyone looking for summer reading that will enrich and enliven your understanding of American politics and government should seek out any of Caro’s books.