“They might as well be wearing raincoats”

| 9:09 am EDT April 1, 2020
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Years ago I watched a movie about a Soviet nuclear submarine that had been pushed into service without even the most basic of gear. Things inevitably went wrong, and as his men went in to try to fix the nuclear reactor, the captain lamented that “They might as well be wearing raincoats.”

Although the movie was based on a true story, I had a hard time identifying with it. I lived in the United States, luckily, where the safety of frontline heroes would never be treated with such negligent contempt. I figured you’d need to have grown up in a regime like the Soviet Union to really identify with the reality of what was happening on that submarine.

But as the coronavirus crisis has continued to unfold, and it’s become clear that the Trump-controlled federal government has no regard at all for the safety of frontline medical professionals, my mind keeps going back to that old movie. Then last night I saw this:

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That’s right, American doctors are now being asked to wear repurposed rain ponchos as “protection” while tending to patients who have a contagious and deadly disease. Under Donald Trump, the United States has fallen this far. As the Soviet submarine captain said in the movie, they might as well be wearing raincoats. I’ve never been more angry and embarrassed.