On a recent evening, one of those epic sunsets in the western sky delivered a rainbow of colors to an old barn on the place. The ravishing scene looked surreal, as if we’d entered a twilight zone.
And haven’t we passed over into mysterious and terrifying territory? Wouldn’t Rod Serling, who created the long-running dramatic series “The Twilight Zone,” be captivated by our plight against the coronavirus?
His show always ended with a twist of the opening plot. Perhaps that’ll happen — an ending to the pandemic that arrives quicker and with far fewer casualties than expected. We can only hope and pray.
Who among us believed that a medical scare could start in one country and spread so quickly across the continents? There should be no blame game attached to this event. But as expected, that controversy has been ongoing for weeks now from the highest levels of government to the local constabulary.
The prediction by medical experts is that the situation will grow much worse before it gets any better. President Trump has changed his tune several times as to how many Americans could possibly die from the virus, his latest set at an astounding 100,000.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said recently that the state’s situation hadn’t gotten bad enough yet to order “shelter in place” restrictions. He said such an edict could be issued where there are increased infections. This has happened in Lauderdale County.
While most of the urgent headlines have brought news from the world and the nation’s largest cities, we also suffer major stories locally. The University of Mississippi Medical Center was expecting a “tidal wave” of citizens seeking care before this thing is vanquished. They put in place programs to preserve the number of masks, gowns and other gear worn by hospital personnel in anticipation of more intensive care patients.
Always a leader in medical research, UMMC also developed its own test for COVID-19 so more Mississippians could be checked for the disease. A turnaround time of 24 hours for results was established.
In South Georgia, where we reside part-time, the region’s largest healthcare delivery system in Albany announced a severe shortage of protective clothing and accessories for its staff in the city of 75,000 that ranks fourth nationally per-capita in confirmed cases. Phoebe Putney Hospital leaders couldn’t wait on help to arrive from various suppliers and began sewing their own masks and other items.
In Georgia and Mississippi, distillers of local liquors and wines have been retrofitted to the manufacture of hand sanitizer. Even automakers are turning out medical personal protective equipment. This reminds of factories during World War II that switched gears to make products required for the battlefield.
I am most aggrieved at the advertisements financing the television networks. These contracts must’ve been written in stone months ago.
These promotions tell us that “a (luxury motorcar) is in your future” or that we should book exotic vacations. Amid a pandemic? We must tolerate ads featuring celebrities driving off into that gorgeous western horizon and arriving at a remote beach to silently contemplate the journeys of life. These come-ons are exceeded in number only by those of nouveau exercise apparatuses and weight-loss programs promising to reshape us all before the disease is wiped out.
This is one twilight zone most of us would rather skip.
