The March 15, 2020, edition of the Buffalo News headlined that 3 cases
of coronavirus/COVID-19 had been confirmed in Erie County; as of NY Governor
Andrew Cuomo’s 11 AM Monday, March 23, 2020, news conference, 87 cases had been
reported here. Who knows how much faster the virus will be contracted and
detected in Buffalo and Erie County, or how bad the outbreak will be here or
nationwide?
I started working on these targeted installments to The Hosey Report
with a new title/subtitle. “Dispatches from the Time of the Virus,” about a
week ago. My first one was written, a bit more than 1,000 words, but I wasn’t
satisfied and decided to sleep on it. My attempted revisions didn’t work, and I
junked the first version altogether, and will use some of it, rather revised,
here. That things are changing on the coronavirus front so fast outdated much
of the first attempt. Life has given me some unique experiences and views into
this virus and situation we live in, prompting these installments. There is so
much that I want to write about that it couldn’t and shouldn’t be given an
all-in-one approach.
I won’t write a bio, but a bit about me will help. I worked as a
newspaper reporter and editor for more than 18 years and have been a freelance
writer for about 35 years. I started working for Erie County in 2004, first for
the Erie County Legislature Democratic Caucus (eventually director of
communications) and I have worked in the Department of Social Services (hereby
ECDSS) since 2014. My wife, photographer Valerie Dunne, works in tech support,
and we live on Buffalo’s West Side/Elmwood Village with our dog, Harold. In
case you don’t know, my wife Val was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis more
than 25 years ago, and among its traits are the immune system going haywire and
attacking parts of the nervous system. I suffered a heart attack in October
2017, a torn aorta was found when I was about to undergo surgery, and I
underwent massive open-heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in November 2017.
I may be susceptible to germs more than before and I really don’t want to find
out the hard way. So, unnecessary exposure or higher risk of exposure to the
coronavirus could be life threatening to us.
When I first started writing this, a state of emergency had just been
declared in Erie County by County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz, someone I have
and do support as a candidate, officeholder and friend. His hard work,
communication skills and proper serious attitude have been a great help. In a
few days, we went from a 50 percent workforce reduction in the private and
public/government sectors to 100 percent noon-essential private sector and
50-75 percent in the government/public sector. FYI, my job is classified as
essential and I am on-call, as well as work a reduced scheduled of M-W-F one
week, T-TH one week, alternating with the rest of our office and department.
While restrictions on who can come to the Rath Building, where my office is, we
are still seeing more than the absolute necessary clients, some making monthly
loan repayments; we aren’t quite certain how they get into the building, and we
do service them (more explained soon). We also distribute transportation to
certain required clients/audiences, but that has fallen off to a few extreme cases.
But there are always opportunities for stupidity and hubris, at the very
least, during the coronavirus crisis. On Sunday, March 15, while walking Harold
through parts of Buffalo’s West Side and Allentown, avoiding proximity to dog
walkers and others, we noticed a larger than expected or than healthy number of
people, mainly younger adults, walking towards the area of Buffalo, on and near
Delaware Avenue and Elmwood Avenue, where the usual St. Patrick’s Day Parade
and parties were held. The main and second parade in South Buffalo had already
been canceled, but this did not stop hundreds of people heading to the area and
partying as if nothing was happening out of the ordinary and as if social
distancing and virus transmission avoidance was for wusses. Eventually, an
uproar at least shamed some of the participants, including the bars and other
businesses involved, but too many people still are not taking this seriously.
These are not normal times, and personally, except for dog walking, grocery shopping,
work and pharmacy stops, I am not leaving the house. Fortunately, I can alter
the dog walk times to those when fewer people are around. But it remains so
fucking annoying how too many people are not taking things serious and not only
risking their own health, but those of others. The easy ways to help fight the
spread of this virus aren’t even on too many people’s radar screens and aren’t
even identified as targets when seen.
If people can’t take these small, easy steps to help confront a virus that
has already killed thousands in China and Italy and at least hundreds in the
USA, what are these same people expected to do when much harder decisions need
to be made and much more urgent action needs to be taken? The acquisition and
distribution of health care, food and other resources are profound issues too
many of these people haven’t shown that they can be trusted to understand or
make decisions about, Hell, social distancing is too hard a concept to grasp,
no doubt in part because it also entails some social responsibility. It seems a
large part of a generation is sadly turning into mini-Donald Trumps in certain
ways; maybe coronavirus is their Vietnam, of which they, too, are trying to
avoid responsibility. Way too many WNYers are that stupid, oblivious or willing
to take risks with their and other people’s health.
I’ll conclude with a story from grocery shopping at Wegmans on Amherst
Street in Buffalo March 14. It was my first day of grocery shopping since the
rushes on toilet paper, sanitizer and sanitizing hand wipes, milk, etc., had
occurred. Thankfully, if you’ll excuse the pun, I’m rather anal about keeping a
sufficient supply of toilet paper at home, so I had no need to buy any that
day. The toilet paper, napkins and paper towels are in the last aisle from the
front door area, and I’m one of those mission-oriented shoppers who goes down
pretty much every aisle, from right to left, to do my shopping. I wasn’t
planning on even trying to get any paper products, but I felt the need to see it
for myself. As I neared the one end of that aisle, a man of African descent
walked from it with a basket containing several items but no paper products. I
was about 15 feet away from him and said I had to just take a look at the
aisle; the side with toilet paper and paper towels was emptier than the
president’s heart.
The man smiled, then said to me in a voice that gave away an accent
sounding like he was probably originally from Africa, “You Americans. This is,
how do you say, a respiratory virus I believe, but you buy all this toilet
paper and all these other things. But here we are, right next to the beer area,
and look at all of it; no one is staying home and drinking beer.” I smiled,
laughed and was kind of stunned at the clarity of his point, and stammered
something about not enough Americans are educated, listening or want to believe
in the worse cases. He smiled, shook his head, repeated “You Americans…” and
waved goodbye. I hope we both survive this to talk more about his observations.
The painters paint, the sculptors sculpt, the singers
sing, the photographers photograph/portray, the actors act/recite, the
musicians play/perform, and for me, the writers write, and we artists must try
to make sense of life, whether joy, tragedy or anything else, including
coronavirius/COVID-19. So you will read more from me very soon.
