The End Of Innocence: March 13, 2020. Oh, And Happy Coronavirus Day! (March 11, 2024)
. . .
K “The second Wednesday of the month started out like any other second Wednesday of the month. Although there was a haunting and menacing threat percolating among the populace. One e-mail noted that the meeting is at a new time this week. One e-mail noted that the meeting is at a new place this month. One e-mail noted that the meeting is at the same bat time and the same bat place this month. One e-mail noted that the meeting features a new speaker promoting a book this month. I took note of the notices.”
J “I do remember. And by Thursday, March 12, the e-mails came flying in during the day. ‘Rescheduled.’ ‘Delayed.’ ‘Postponed.’ ‘Cancelled.’ Your life is changed.”
K “And by Friday the 13th, everyone got religion. And a National Emergency to boot.”
. . .
K “By the end of January, 2020, I bought and distributed two dozen pulse oximeters to folks who had no idea what they were and no idea what to do with them. ‘What’s this?’ By middle February and as part of my ongoing research, I breezed through the stores to check inventory and discovered restocked shelves.”
J “In February, 2020, I don’t recall anyone else who was considering future broken supply chains.”
. . .
K “When her seven year old son was under the weather at 4 in the morning, she remembered something about that pulse oximeter thing device and . . . recalled the identity of the donor, as I recall.”
. . .
K “Four years of real ugliness.”
J “Unreal ugliness.”
. . .
[See “Four Years Ago This Week, Freedom Was Torched” By Jeffrey Tucker in the “Brownstone Institute” dated March 10, 2024.]
[See the more than sixty e-commentaries at Covid / Coronavirus and On Friendship Today: Flat, Fried, Frayed, Frazzled, Frozen, Fractured, Fissured, Fatigued, Finished? Oh, And Happy Thanksgiving! (November 20, 2023).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
“Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.” Bob Seger, “Against the Wind” (Someone suggested that Bob Seger regretted the syntax. He crafted a perfect poem. Not a word too many; not a word too few. The two contractions are critical. Wish I’d written it then; what I can do is quote it now.)
What was the breaking news story of 2020?
2020 Submission for Pulitzer in “Breaking News Reporting”:
Short summary:
From an early expression of uncertain concern on January 27, e-commentary presented at least 30 weekly pieces with links analyzing, questioning, challenging, reflecting and opining on the Virus. See “Covid / Coronavirus” on site.
Background Information:
Please identify any partnerships with other institutions or organizations in the reporting of this story: There were and are no partnerships with other institutions or organizations.
Describe the event that triggered the coverage, and provide a timeline of how your publication broke key aspects of the story:
An aside from a public health official at a funeral on MLK Day; a few other stray observations by others; an intriguing and disconcerting article in late January. Snippets, comments, rumors. Something unknown yet virulent was spreading in America and the world. What was up?
Throughout 2020, “J” and “K” gathered to discuss, analyze, question and challenge the unfolding events and responses. Over the year, about 30 “e-commentary” pieces sought to make sense of every aspect of the new Big C. Not enough space is available even to list merely the titles of the columns, yet all of the columns can be accessed under the “Covid / Coronavirus” Category.
The February 24 piece was written by an author who was already wearing a mask in public and observed that business as usual would not be business as usual again.
The March and April pieces challenged the early government assertion that masks were not necessary and provided scientific authority that they are indeed effective; offered evidence that the Virus spread more widely by aerosolization and provided scientific sources; analyzed the failure to investigate in good faith available treatments; questioned the logic and wisdom of misrepresenting facts that would soon be challenged as unfounded or inaccurate; and raised other concerns and issues. The March 16 and April 20 and 27 pieces round out the early breaking reporting.
The other topics ranged from questions and comments about masking, washing, distancing, testing, tracing, treating, vaccinating, working, playing, living, closing (schools), opening (colleges), moving (from the city to the country), losing (track of days and time) and not losing (one’s good sense and judgment). The first submission is the final piece of the year providing the “Year In Review” and discusses the previous “e-commentary” and then the other six submissions on the new Big C are provided.
[How can you honestly mediate who broke a story first?]
What obstacles, if any, were overcome in the reporting?:
The primary obstacles were personal and psychological. The obstacles were also the challenge and opportunity. Few events in 2020 were 20/20. Trying to discern the truth among all the untruths was trying. So much of the purported information was incomplete, inadequate or inaccurate. One had to remain extremely skeptical while endeavoring to remain open enough to discern a nascent kernel of truth amid the fog. This writer did not lose sight of the intentions and ambitions of the “e-commentary” undertaking.
The goals of “e-commentary” are to peak behind the curtain, lift up the carpet and look under the table while honing skills, helping folks and having fun. The pieces ventured answers to questions that had not yet been asked, sought to elucidate as much Truth on as many issues in as few words as possible, and strove to leave a “commentary of record” for Clio’s consideration. The permanent weekly written record struggling to make sense of what was at times senseless may be the enduring legacy.
Please describe any innovative techniques used in reporting or telling the story:
The innovative techniques are often admittedly daunting to new readers. Each week, the engaged reader joins the ongoing conversation between our friends “J” and “K” in their quest for Truth. The presentations are sketched with plain white chalk on a stark electronic blackboard devoid of any other distractions of any kind. After the discussion between the two of them, the site references and links articles, tracts, websites, scientific treatises and other sources for background and perspective. Relevant prior “e-commentary” is also referenced and linked. The playful signature sign off “Bumper sticker of the week” each week could be and is just about anything. Edgy at times, this e-ndeavor intends not to be over the edge but rather occasionally to meander near there.
If applicable, how is this work distinguished from competing reporting on this subject?
“e-commentary” tells the story by not telling the story. Too many pieces tell, direct, demand, promote and order the reader what to think, whereas these pieces coax, suggest, reveal, infer and intimate how one should consider thinking about the issues. Experimental, adventurous, ambitious, and courageous, the dialogue format allows the reader to eavesdrop with permission on the ongoing conversation between “J” and “K” each week. The conversation develops and builds on earlier comments and foreshadows later discussions enriching and rewarding the reader who is paying attention and following the ever emerging story line.
Please note any substantive challenges to the accuracy or fairness of the work and provide any response by the news organization or reporters:
There was no challenge to the accuracy or fairness of the commentary or any allegation of an ethical violation. However, the crystal ball was on the fritz and in the shop a few times over the last sixteen (16) years. The Euro (€) did not percolate up to an exchange rate of two dollars ($) as speculated, some election outcomes were a surprise but not a complete shock, etc. But that comes with the terrain.
Uploaded Contents:
e-commentary: 17 Years Of Fun And Counting. Almost 800! (December 28, 2020)
Covid-19 Pandemic: Coming To A Town Near You (March 2, 2020)
Covid-19 PanICdemic: It’s (Been) Here. It’s The Aerosol That Kills! (March 9, 2020)
Covid-19 PanICdemic: ‘Virus Trumpius’ Is Virulent And Traumatic (March 23, 2020)
If you will be including supplemental material, please summarize it:
Seven submissions are not enough to capture the scope and breadth and depth of this undertaking. As part of the selection process, consider a second stage review by reading seven more randomly selected pieces from each of the top ten submissions. According to the statistics maintained by WordPress, only a few hundred individuals have clicked on, but not necessarily even reviewed, the almost eight hundred “e-commentaries” published in the last sixteen (16) years. That dismal public response may be enough reason to skip reading even the seven submissions. There is, however, something there. There is enough there. There is more than enough there.
_______________________
“Well those drifters days are past me now. I’ve got so much more to think about.
Deadlines and commitments. What to leave in, what to leave out.” Bob Seger, “Against the Wind”
e-commentary 
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