The past 20 years has
been a golden age for what is known as “reality TV.” Starting off with CBS’s Survivor,
the format now has more variants than COVID, with the Real Housewives
franchise an inexplicable powerhouse. While not my thing, the market is the
ultimate arbiter of what is popular, and I could care less who spends their
time viewing these less-than-real lives. But when our highest elected officials
are either party to, or victim of, such antics, we need to start asking a lot
of questions.
Even if, like me, you don’t
watch daytime TV, you probably have heard of, and may have seen some of the histrionics
from, ABC’s The View. This otherwise insufferable gabfest, inexplicably
aligned under the network’s news division, grabbed headlines on Friday when two
of their hosts had to leave the show mid-airing because they tested positive for
COVID just before Vice President Harris was to come on the show. The video led
the news for the entire day, playing out as if a national crisis had been
averted.
Except nothing, absolutely
nothing, about what happened was true.
While it turns out that the
show’s hosts are regularly tested for COVID, the requirement for a rapid test
came from the VP’s office. Why, you might ask? Good question. The hosts are all
vaccinated. The VP is vaccinated with the vaccine that she famously said she
wouldn’t-trust-because-Donald-Trump’s-administration-developed-it but now
everyone must have the jab. So if the vaccine works so well, and everyone has been
vaccinated, why does anyone who comes within six feet of the VP need
to be tested? Never mind.
And as to that national
crisis of potential infection? Oh, it was a false positive. For both tests. If a
false positive led to the tirade of some overhyped actor, none of this would
matter. A real-world concern would be for international travelers, as a false
positive would send you to quarantine in a foreign country because you have to test
negative, even if you are citizen and have been vaccinated, to get back into the
US. But the greatest concern is that this false positive involves the executive
leadership of the government, and its utter failure here reflects a national
inability to move forward from COVID.
We see the trickle down
of this ineptitude everywhere. In New York City, you have to have proof of
vaccination and wear a mask to see a movie. To sit down in a restaurant,
you need to show proof of vaccination, but you don’t need to wear a mask, which
is odd because when there was no vaccine all you had to do was wear a mask and
take it off when you sat down at the table. Of course elsewhere in the state,
or other states entirely, none of this applies.
And while the internal
policies of one city may not be important, when the President gets it all
wrong, then it just adds fuel to the political fire. Imagine a President who
gives out off-the-cuff medical advice on vaccination based on no discernable
medical research. When it was Donald Trump, everyone pilloried him; when it was
Joe Biden telling everyone to get a booster shot, it was merely “a premature
suggestion awaiting further confirmation.” When that confirmation was, at best,
limited and tepid, there was a White House victory dance affirming that the
most seriously immuno-compromised should get a booster. This was hardly the
triumph of great science.
To take it a step
further, does the White House really want a COVID triumph? With each new
variant there seems to be another reason not to move forward, just ominous
mentioning of “not wanting to return to lockdowns.” The only reason I can even
keep track of the mutations is that I had to memorize the Greek alphabet as a
fraternity pledge, but that was nearly 40 years ago, which seems to be as long
as the COVID crisis has been going on. But we are at a point where we face a
stark choice: how much can the government control the most basic elements of
our life, like walking into a restaurant. As only a political scientist can
appreciate, you know the world is upside down when free-market Republican governors
have to use the most draconian instrument, authoritarian executive orders, just
to keep businesses open.
Each side from The View
COVID drama seems to be very quiet, just sending out little feelers
in the press to cover themselves. Conspiracy theorist might say the whole thing
was a setup for ratings; more innocently it may have been a bunch of underlings
who screwed up the works. Who knows? But I do know there are hard-core
anti-vaxxers who won’t believe a word the government says. I’m not part of that
crowd, but when this administration runs our country’s COVID policy as a
reality show, do you blame them?
© 2021 Alexander W.
Stephens, All Rights Reserved.
