I haven’t posted the map in a while. Note Florida is heating up. These maps and all the numbers are really skewed by how few tests we have. Bottom line– its everywhere. Also I couldn’t get the whole map because I”m writing this sitting in bed, head tilted left, with an eye patch covering my right eye.
As a novelist, especially one who writes thrillers and science fiction, and with a background in Special Forces, where the biggest thing that made us special was our planning, I spend a lot of time “what-iffing” things.
I always thought we spent a hell of a lot of money on aircraft carriers; too much. Yes, I’ve been on one which we used a floating Forward Operating Base, launching Nightstalker choppers and A-Teams from. But that’s not what they’re built for. They are a projection of air power. And a huge investment in capital and manpower. The USS Theodore Roosevelt cost 4.5 billion to build in 2007 dollars. I’m not sure what that is in bitcoin today. Takes over 5,000 sailors to operate. And that’s not counting the multimillion dollars aircraft, the cost of any one of which could have probably provided all the N95 masks we need now.
I used to sit and think of ways to disable such a formidable weapon. Flocks of small drones, each carrying a little bit of plutonium dust? Sure they’ll shoot a bunch down, but many will get through. Crash land on the flight deck, contaminate it for longer than my lifetime. But now we know the easier way? Find one sailor just before it sails, have some pretty girl give him a smooch with a virus and it’s out of action a few weeks later.
Seriously? Yep. If I’d written it, you’ve wouldn’t have bought the book. I did write the pandemic thriller, everyone does, with the brilliant title Z. Yep, just the letter. Aspiring writers, don’t do that. It’s called being stupid. Title has to invite readers into the book. I added Final Countdown after republishing it. Does Z invite you in?
What worries me is that our senior leadership in the Department of Defense has become a bunch of lackies. Buried in the bailout was a provision that the members of the Joint Chiefs could stay on past their normal terms. Why? Has Trump finally found the sycophants he needs to run the military? Has the pardoning of war criminals and the attacks on honorable servicemembers finally had its inevitable results?
It starts with a Commander-In-Chief who uttered the statement that disqualifies any leader at any level: “I don’t take any responsibility at all.” Game over.
Where does that leave us? On our own. Some governors have followed the White House lead, which is meaning doing nothing.
So don’t count on the military to save us. They can’t save themselves from their own leaders.
It’s down to local communities.
So enough ranting—here’s the point. Don’t count on anyone to save you. It will take at least until the end of this year for a vaccine if not longer. That show I recommended yesterday shows how they make vaccines and it’s time consuming. This virus is going to keep rippling around the world. We could get lucky and it mutates into something less lethal. Or unlucky and the opposite. No one really knows. The more I listen to the experts, the more I pick up their uncertainty.
I’ll get back to more practical advice as I heal. I went for my check up today, reluctantly (I was the only masked person in the waiting room). My eye is healing. The gas is at 50% which means I actually can see the line of the bubble across the middle of my eye but that’s it. The assistant made me cover my left eye and asked what I could see on the chart and I was “What chart?” Seriously. I got nothing in that eye, but in a week I should be seeing something.
PLEASE! Take this virus seriously. Stay safe.
Oh yeah– 18 days until my next book, titled X. No, seriously, it’s Area 51: Earth Abides.
The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.
The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)
The NY Times has dropped its paywall for information about COVID-19, Coronavirus. Click HERE to go to it. Also, The Economist has dropped its paywall for information about COVID-19 and it does a very good job drilling down on various aspects.
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