Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday morning during an interview (see video above), CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed President Trump’s adviser Peter Navarro on Trump’s admitting to journalist Bob Woodward that he knew, weeks before the first confirmed US coronavirus death, that the virus was dangerous, airborne, highly contagious and “more deadly than even your strenuous flus,” and that he repeatedly downplayed it publicly. Navarro did everything he could to avoid answering the question and went on a long-winded history of events in January and February.  Tapper finally ends the interview telling Navarro that he is not answering the question and states: “the United States has less than five percent of the world’s population and more than twenty percent of coronavirus deaths.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

We are a few weeks into the Fall 2020 semester at most colleges and CNN is reporting that there have been more than 40,000 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed among students, staff and faculty nationwide. That number is likely to go higher in the coming weeks as colleges struggle to establish effective safe environments for their students. As reported by CNN.

“Many outbreaks have cropped up after gatherings at fraternities and sororities: One cluster of COVID-19 cases was traced back to a fraternity party held at the University of New Hampshire. More than 100 people attended the Aug. 29 party and few wore masks.

At Indiana University Bloomington, 30 sorority and fraternity houses have been ordered to quarantine following what campus officials have described as an “alarming increase” in COVID-19 cases within the houses.

School officials told Greek houses to suspend all in-person activities until at least Sept. 14.

“IU’s team of public health experts is extremely concerned that Greek houses are seeing uncontrolled spread of COVID-19,” the university said in a statement. “This poses a significant risk to the nearly 2,600 students currently living in Greek or other communal housing organizations, as well as to the other 42,000 IU Bloomington students, the campus’s 12,000 faculty and staff, and the surrounding community.”

Meanwhile, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has told all undergraduate students they must restrict their movements for the next two weeks, to try to reverse a rise in COVID-19 cases. The university also directed nine campus fraternities and sororities with off-campus live-in houses to quarantine for at least 14 days.

“We’ve reached the point where we need to quickly flatten the curve of infection, or we will lose the opportunity to have campus open to students this semester, which we know many students truly want,” Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in a statement.

Some of the highest number of cases are at Miami University, University of South Carolina, Ohio State University and East Carolina University, all of which have over 1,000 confirmed cases. The University of Missouri has 862 confirmed cases, while Missouri State University has 791.

Even what is left of the college football season is on shaky ground: A number of teams have postponed their openers this weekend because of the pandemic, the Washington Post reported. Some of these games may not be made up, or won’t be made up until December at the earliest. And other postponements cannot be ruled out as colleges continue to deal with spikes in coronavirus cases.”

I feel fortunate that here at the City University of New York, the decision was made to conduct our classes online.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times’, Nicholas Kristof, asks is his column this morning: “What if Trump Fought the Virus as Hard as He Fought for His Wall?”  It is great question and Kristof concludes that many thousands of American lives would have been saved.  Here is an excerpt:

“What would America be like today if President Trump had acted decisively in January to tackle the coronavirus, as soon as he was briefed on the danger?

One opportunity for decisive action came Jan. 28, when his national security adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, told Trump that the coronavirus “will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency.” Trump absorbed the warning, telling Bob Woodward days later how deadly and contagious the virus could be, according to Woodward’s new book, “Rage.”

Yet the president then misled the public by downplaying the virus, comparing it to the flu and saying that it would “go away.” He resisted masks, sidelined experts, held large rallies, denounced lockdowns and failed to get tests and protective equipment ready — and here we are, with Americans constituting 4 percent of the world’s population and 22 percent of Covid-19 deaths.

There’s plenty of blame to be directed as well at local officials, nursing home managers and ordinary citizens — but Trump set the national agenda.

Suppose Trump in January — or even in February — had warned the public of the dangers, had ensured that accurate tests were widely distributed (Sierra Leone had tests available before the United States) and had built up a robust system of contact tracing (Congo has better contact tracing than the United States).

Suppose he had ramped up production of masks and empowered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to lead the pandemic response, instead of marginalizing its experts.

Suppose he had tried as relentlessly to battle the virus as he has to build his wall?

If testing and contact tracing had been done right, then we would have known where hot spots were and large-scale lockdowns and layoffs might have been unnecessary.

The United States would still have made mistakes. We focused too much on ventilators and not enough on other things that might have been more useful, like face masks, blood thinners and high-flow nasal cannulas. Because of mask shortages, health messaging about their importance was bungled. Governors and mayors dithered, and nursing homes weren’t adequately protected.

But many of our peer countries did better than we did not because they got everything right but because they got some things right — and then learned from mistakes.”

Trump will have difficulty deflecting his lack of leadership and outright incompetence as a result of the Woodward story.  If I was in Biden’s campaign, I would keep harping on the fact that Americans constitute 4 percent of the world’s population and 22 percent of Covid-19 deaths.   It is projected that more than 400,000 Americans will die from coronavirus by the end of the year.  This number is higher than the American casualties in all the wars the United States has fought since World War II – Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway described President Donald Trump’s involvement in the push to start the Big Ten football season as “cheap politics.”

Speaking to NJ Advance Media, Holloway said Trump’s involvement in the Big Ten’s situation will not impact his decision on when Big Ten sports should resume. Trump spoke last week with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren in a 20-minute conversation both sides described as productive.

The president has tweeted several times about his desire for the Big Ten season to begin and several governors who could be standing in the way. During a campaign stop Thursday in Michigan, Trump told reporters, “We want to see Big Ten football. We hope it’s coming back. The players are missing a big opportunity. They have some of the best college players in the country.”

Holloway, who took over as Rutgers’ president in July after serving as provost at Northwestern, said he isn’t enamored with Trump’s involvement.

“I mean, it’s just cheap politics,” he told NJ Advance Media. “I want that person to be paying attention to matters of national security and national importance. This does not rise to that level — not for a half-second. And even if it was a president that I was completely in love with that was doing this, I’d still think it would be cheap politics.”

Big Ten presidents and chancellors voted Aug. 11 to postpone the fall sports season, including football, because of concerns around the coronavirus pandemic. Holloway was among the 11 presidents and chancellors who elected to postpone, and told NJ Advance Media that his position won’t change until the COVID-19 situation improves, including in Big Ten states such as Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska.

“If I’m wrong because I was erring on the side of safety, I don’t have a problem with that,” said Holloway, who played football at Stanford, where he was teammates with Cory Booker, now a U.S. senator representing New Jersey. “I don’t think I’m wrong, though. I just don’t think it. And if I had to put money down, we’re going to see some radical changes within a month — no later than October. I’m really worried about what we’re heading toward, on just college campuses in general, not just sports. It’s deeply concerning.”

State political leaders from six states with Big Ten schools wrote to Warren and league presidents and chancellors this week, asking them to reverse the postponement. The Big Ten responded that it is working “to identify opportunities to resume competition as soon as it is safe to do so.”

The Big Ten’s return to competition task force has been working on improved testing and other medical benchmarks that, if reached, could kick off the football season. Ohio State coach Ryan Day and others are pushing a return as early as mid-October. According to Big Ten bylaws, at least nine of the 14 presidents and chancellors would need to vote to approve the resumption of competition. A vote could take place early next week, sources said.

Stay the course, President Halloway!

Tony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3bvq093_sE

Dear Commons Community,

At Thursday’s NFL season opener, the Houston Texans stayed in their locker room for both the pregame playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, which is often called the Black national anthem.

The Kansas City Chiefs, meanwhile, were on the field for both songs. The defending Super Bowl champions stood on their sideline during the national anthem, many with arms linked. Defensive end Alex Okafor appeared to be the lone player who kneeled. All stood on a goal line for Alicia Keys’ performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

When Houston eventually took the field, the respective quarterbacks for both teams, the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Texans’ Deshaun Watson, organized a lineup of all the players. They stood with arms linked during a moment of silence. 

Some boos from the COVID-downsized crowd at Arrowhead Stadium were audible. 

The fact that players standing together during a moment of silence would cause such a reaction from some of the sport’s most devoted fans is one reason the NFL has seemingly stopped worrying about everyone’s opinions.   As reported by Yahoo Sports and other news media.

It was a few seconds of respectful demonstration. 

And yet still, some objected to it occurring, objected to the quiet views and simple actions of no less than Mahomes and his teammates, who had delivered the city a long-awaited Super Bowl. If that isn’t a reasonable or peaceful enough of a “protest” then it’s not what the players are doing, but the fact they are doing anything at all.

This was the culmination of an issues-heavy run-up to the traditional season kickoff. The offseason was overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest following multiple high-profile incidents involving African Americans and the police. 

The NBC pregame show was full of segments and videos promoting activism and social justice efforts. The phrases “It Takes All Of Us” and “End Racism” were painted behind each end zone. An NFL video promoting social justice also played on the big screen.

This was the NFL leaning into the promotion of social justice causes just a few years after a kneeling Colin Kaepernick, and heavy criticism from Donald Trump and a segment of fans, had left the league rocked and reeling. 

If nothing else, the scene Thursday, which is expected to play out in various ways across the league this weekend and beyond, is a sign that the NFL is no longer afraid of the backlash from disillusioned fans or Trump himself. 

This is how it’s going to be, the NFL is saying. Take it or leave it. 

“I’m going to do whatever I believe is right,” Mahomes, arguably the most popular player in the league said earlier this week. “… I’m not worried about people and how they are going to do negative stuff back to me. I’m worried about doing what’s right for humanity and for all people to feel equal.”

“These are our communities,” Goodell said on the NBC pregame show, clearly supportive of whatever players and coaches come up with. “We live in these communities. We play in these communities. We operate in these communities. And I think we’re all tired and see the things that are going on, the abuses that shouldn’t be happening. It is a time for us to make the changes. 

“We aren’t here to make political statements,” Goodell continued. “We are here to make our communities better.”

Essentially, somewhere along the way, the NFL stopped caring (or caring as much) about the politics of the politics.

Whether that’s a smart strategy remains to be seen. There will be an impact not just on the NFL season and its viewership numbers, but perhaps the 2020 election, where Trump, no doubt, would love to shift the focus away from his response to the coronavirus and onto a good, old-fashioned culture war wedge issue. 

This is a sea change for the league. In 2017, Trump owned the league’s franchise owners, bullying even ones who felt the league could do more to stand up for their kneeling players. Television ratings were adversely impacted as a result.

“The problem we have is, we have a president who will use that as fodder to do his mission that I don’t feel is in the best interests of America,” said New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft during a meeting between franchise owners and players in Manhattan. A tape of that conversation was released in 2018 to The New York Times. 

Kraft is, mind you, a longtime friend and supporter, both financially and otherwise, of Trump. 

“We’ve got to be careful not to be baited by Trump or whomever else,” said Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. “We have to find a way to not be divided and not get baited.” Lurie later called Trump’s presidency “disastrous.”

The NFL tolerated player actions and funded important initiatives for social justice and criminal reform. Yet the support always felt uneasy. No one wanted to lean into the fight. 

Three years feels a long time ago. 

Maybe it was just the years of getting criticized by Trump that the insults and tweets have lost their sting. Or maybe it was the focus on tangible issues that came from the May 2020 death of George Floyd. Or maybe it’s the league catering to shifting sentiments in America, especially younger Americans who are the NFL future (if not present) consumer base. 

Or perhaps it’s a different perspective from a new generation of players (many of whom were in college when Kaepernick took a knee), coaches (a dozen are 45 or under, including five in their 30s) and even team owners. 

Carolina’s Jerry Richardson, who noted in 2017 that “politicizing the game is damaging,” sold his share of the Panthers in 2018. Then, there was the Houston Texans’ Robert McNair, who in the meeting asked players to get their peers to stop kneeling in an attempt to appease Trump.

“You fellas need to ask your compadres, fellas, stop that other business, let’s go out and do something that really produces positive results, and we’ll help you,” McNair said.

McNair died in 2018.

Whatever it is, the change has been dramatic. Kaepernick may not be on a roster, but Goodell apologized this summer for not listening to him at the time. That was unthinkable in 2017.

So the league has shifted. But has the public?

A poll commissioned by the Washington Post that was released Thursday shows that 56 percent of Americans say it is “appropriate” to kneel during the anthem while 42 percent disagree.

That’s one thing if this was an election, 56 beats 42 every time. It’s not necessarily if you are running a business. That’s a lot of opposition, and it promises to be vocal and determined. Some fans will rage against the league and stop watching. There is no doubt.

The NFL, like other professional sports, has determined that it will live with that. Playing the middle of the road got it hit from both sides. So the league made a choice. 

The same poll notes that about 70 percent of adults under the age of 50 say “professional athletes should use their platforms to express their views.” That’s the generation of the future, or even present. The numbers may even be higher in the urban and suburban markets where teams mostly reside. 

So let the season, and the protests begin. There will be boos and boycotts, there will also be applause and support. This is the side the NFL has chosen, one where it stands with its players for social change in America. 

If nothing else, a once-petrified group of team owners is no longer scared of Trump or much else. 

Good luck with the season, NFL!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

While many colleges are still trying to work out exactly how they will be handling the present fall semester in light of the coronanvirus, Chancellor Timothy White of the California State University, announced yesterday  that his system will conduct instruction mostly online again in the spring semester.  In making the announcement, White said “This decision is the only responsible one available to us at this time.”

He also stated that: “We have learned from experience that announcing this decision now will allow faculty and staff to continue or start professional development to be even more effective in the virtual space. We also know that deciding now will allow our students and their families time to plan appropriately.”

Cal State was among the very first institutions of higher education to announce it would be primarily online this fall. According to White, making that decision in May allowed the university’s faculty to successfully plan for online teaching, yet didn’t put a dent in the system’s enrollment. White wrote that preliminary enrollment figures for the fall are “strong across the system, with a few exceptions.”

“This is quite gratifying,” he added, “and it will be to the great benefit of our future alumni and the state of California in the years and decades ahead.”

Earlier this week I was at a meeting with my dean and others, and we were of the mind that CUNY would likely be online again in the spring.  I don’t know what the enrollment situation is across the CUNY system but at Hunter College enrollment is up a bit for the fall.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Not matter what news outlet you follow, today the headlines will reference Bob Woodward’s book, Rage, in which Donald Trump admits knowing the dangers of coronavirus back in February but decided to lie and mislead the American people.  A conversation about this revelation between Trump and Woodward is on tape and cannot be refuted as he said-she said.  The death toll of the coronavirus is approaching 200,000 and before the end of the year will likely be close to 400,000.  Millions, diagnosed with the disease, have suffered horribly.  Over 40 million people have lost their jobs. Much of this calamity could have been avoided if Trump had acted like a president rather than worried about his reelection and promoting bleach as a cure.  The New York Times editorial below reviews this sad situation.

Tony

—————————————————————————————————-

New York Times

Mr. Trump Knew It Was Deadly and Airborne

By The Editorial Board

Sept. 9, 2020

On Feb. 7, during a taped interview with Bob Woodward, President Trump acknowledged that the coronavirus could be transmitted through the air, that it was very dangerous and that it would be difficult to contain. “This is deadly stuff,” he told the investigative journalist.

“You just breathe the air, and that’s how it’s passed,” the president warned.

Despite his apparent understanding of the severity of the disease and its method of transmission, over the next month, in five cities around the country, Mr. Trump held large indoor rallies, which were attended by thousands of his supporters.

Mr. Trump spent weeks insisting in public that the coronavirus was no worse than a seasonal flu. It would “disappear” when the seasons changed, he promised in late February. “We’re doing a great job,” he said in early March.

Why lie to the American people? Why — as the administration accuses the Chinese government of doing — lie to the world about the severity of what was declared a pandemic only days later?

“I wanted to always play it down,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Woodward on March 19. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

Mr. Trump and a great many of his supporters and political allies did play down the severity of the coronavirus and did criticize the public health measures deployed to prevent its spread. As a result, the coronavirus spread faster and sickened or killed more people in the United States than in any of its peer nations. If the United States had the same coronavirus fatality rate as Canada, more than 100,000 Americans could still be alive today.

Much of the responsibility for the fatal mishandling of the pandemic lies with the president. But with every public lie out of Mr. Trump’s mouth, or on his Twitter feed, how many members of his administration who knew better stayed silent?

The president has repeatedly tried to muzzle and sideline scientists and health officials who disagree with his sunny assessments, often replacing them with less qualified people willing to sing his praises.

So it was that the president’s coronavirus task force revised guidelines on testing for asymptomatic people, while the task force’s leading infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, was having surgery. So it is that, in the pandemic’s seventh month, Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist with no background in infectious disease outbreaks, is arguing that it’s not the government’s job to stamp out the coronavirus, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention remain silent.

Mr. Trump’s lack of leadership almost certainly made the nation’s suffering greater, its death toll higher and its economic costs more severe in the long term. When the president dithered on testing and contact tracing, when he failed to make or execute a clear and effective plan for securing personal protective equipment, when he repeatedly belittled and dismissed mask mandates and other social distancing edicts, Mr. Trump knew the virus was deadly and airborne. He knew that millions of people could get sick, and many would die.

Furthermore, Mr. Woodward’s tapes make clear that members of the Trump administration failed to act — even behind the scenes — based on what they knew at the time.

Nearly 200,000 people in the United States have already died, and hundreds of thousands more have suffered grave illness — often followed by a slow, hard recovery and, in some cases, permanent disability. Tens of millions of people have lost their jobs, and millions are on the cusp of losing their homes. School systems and elder care networks are struggling to function. The economy is in tatters.

Imagine what this picture could look like today if the president had been honest with the American public on Feb. 7, calmly taken charge of the nation’s response to the pandemic and did his best to protect them.

Dear Commons Community,

More than 500,000 children in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported on Tuesday, and the rate of new cases among kids continues to rise.

From Aug. 20 to Sept. 3, there were 70,630 cases reported among children — an increase of 16 percent — bringing the national total to 513,415. The largest increases were reported in six states: Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.

As many as 103 children have died, according to the report.

“These numbers are a chilling reminder of why we need to take this virus seriously,” Dr. Sara Goza, president of the academy, said in a statement.

The half a million pediatric cases represent 9.8 percent of the more than 6 million cases overall in the country.

The report is a collaboration between the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, and relies on data collected by each state.

Severe outcomes and complications of the coronavirus appear to be rare among children. Among a subset of 23 states and New York City, kids accounted for anywhere between 0.7 percent and 3.7 percent of patients sick enough to be hospitalized.

While children may be largely spared the worst outcomes, experts say they can spread the virus to more vulnerable family members.

“While much remains unknown about COVID-19, we do know that the spread among children reflects what is happening in the broader communities,” Goza said. “A disproportionate number of cases are reported in Black and Hispanic children and in places where there is high poverty.”

Researchers said much of the surge in pediatric cases over the summer occurred in the South, the Midwest and the West.

“This rapid rise in positive cases occurred over the summer, and as the weather cools, we know people will spend more time indoors,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases, said in a statement.

Also Tuesday, the academy recommended every child over age 6 months should get the flu vaccine before the end of October, to help prevent a “twindemic” of influenza and the coronavirus.

“The goal is to get children back into schools for in-person learning, but in many communities, this is not possible as the virus spreads unchecked,” O’Leary said. “We must take this seriously and implement the public health measures we know can help; that includes wearing masks, avoiding large crowds, and maintaining social distance.”

This report surely helps parents understand the dangers of COVID-19 as they make decisions about sending their children to school.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I have just finished reading Barbara Demick’s, Eat the Buddha:  Life and Death in a Tibetan Town.   It is the story of the relationship of the people of Tibet and China over the past sixty years.  I was not familiar enough with this history and welcome the insights into how the Tibetans have fared under Chinese rule. 

It is not a happy story especially for the small town of Ngaba which has seen many of its residents, mostly monks,  immolate themselves as protests against Chinese rule.  Ngaba was chosen because it was the site of Tibet’s first meeting with Chinese Communists, in the 1930s. “The people of this region have a particular wound causing excessive suffering that spans three generations,” the monk Kirti Rinpoche testified before a U.S. congressional commission in 2011. “This wound is very difficult to forget or heal.” It is unlikely that anything will change soon.

If you are at all interested in this part of the world, I highly recommend Demick’s treatment.

A New York Times Book Review is below.

Tony

New York Times