We Talkin’ About Practice?
On March 11, 2020, my son texted me to see if he could stay after school for his volleyball practice. At first I said yes, but then his mom and I decided it wasn’t a good idea. He wasn’t happy. He was even less so when we picked him up and headed to the grocery store to stock up on frozen goods (luckily, we were already flush with toilet paper). The missed volleyball season didn’t mean much in terms of training since the season would soon be canceled. But it meant a lot in terms of everything else, as it was the last time my son, and everyone else, had a chance to do something normal for a long time.
From my book, Please Scream Inside Your Heart, here’s a quick look back at the day everything changed. We had no idea what we were in for in the near term. And we certainly had no idea how much our country and world would change in ways entirely unpredictable.
Nobody told me there’d be days like these.
There’s almost nothing that can make a virus seem more real faster than finding out that someone you know has it. Someone everyone knows got COVID-19. Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, announced they had tested positive for the virus and would be getting treatment under quarantine in Australia.
The NCAA announced that its wildly popular March Madness tournament would be played in front of arenas that would be empty, other than essential personnel and limited family members.
We’d learn that this NCAA plan was overly optimistic within hours. Fans at an NBA game in Oklahoma City were waiting inside of their arena for their home team Thunder to face the visiting Utah Jazz. What could be weirder than something from Utah being named after jazz? This. Fans sat in Chesapeake Energy Arena waiting for the game to start. Thirty-five minutes after the scheduled tipoff, the PA announcer told them that game had been postponed: “You are all safe. And take your time leaving the arena tonight and thank you for doing so in an orderly manner.” Within twenty minutes of that announcement, we learned that, following a positive test for a Jazz player named Rudy Gobert, the NBA would postpone its entire season. On the same day, the NHL made the same decision. Out of nowhere, we were confronted by a new rule of thumb. Every gathering is a clusterf-ck.
Update: it’s still March 11.
President Trump, who two days earlier was still blaming the fake news and the Democratic Party for inflaming virus concerns, gave only his second Oval Office address. It was an ineffective presidential address, but by giving it at all, Trump acknowledged a crisis he had heretofore denied. For him, that was a pivot. He didn’t, however, pivot when it came to substance, and he certainly didn’t pivot when it came to his bedside manner. Viewers of the address learned about a partial European travel ban at the same time European officials learned about it. This was on top of a partial China travel ban already in effect. (Side note: the virus was. already. here.) There was no clear plan, and no soothing, not even for his favorite constituent, the stock market. Market futures began to plummet as he spoke, and the next morning, the Dow suffered its biggest drop since 1987.
Trump canceled trips to Colorado and Nevada, “out of an abundance of caution” (a phrase that would be repeated by everyone in every industry until it became clear that it wasn’t an abundance, it was just caution). New York City canceled the Saint Patrick’s Day parade. Seattle closed its schools for at least fourteen days. San Francisco banned large-group gatherings. Disneyland officials decided to close the park later in the week. Fox News execs prepared an internal email sent out the next day that would announce the implementation of several safety measures, including a directive that any staff member who was able to work from home should begin doing so. (Their viewers received no such warnings. On air, the lies about the virus continued apace. At least in this one way, it was just another Wednesday.) In Washington State, ten long-term-care facilities reported virus cases. Late-night shows recorded in front of empty studios. Twitter announced all employees would be required to work from home. Twenty-three states declared a state of emergency. US State Department employees were barred from nonessential travel. The WHO, for the first time, labeled COVID-19 a global pandemic. The US had 1,267 COVID-19 cases, and the death toll was at 37.
Donald Trump on March 11: “I think we’re going to get through it very well.”
+ “By early February, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver began buying extra toilet paper. ‘My wife was laughing at me and saying, ‘Why are you doing this?’ Silver told ESPN. ‘I go, ‘This is what we’re talking about every day at work. It’s only toilet paper, but let’s get the extra toilet paper.’ She told me I was being an alarmist.'” ESPN: ‘He’s got it’: An oral history of the NBA’s COVID-19 shutdown — and how it changed sports forever.
+ If you missed it last week, here’s David Wallace-Wells in the NYT (Gift Article): How Covid Remade America.
+ NYT Upshot (Gift Article): 30 Charts That Show How Covid Changed Everything – In March 2020.
+ The defining photos of the pandemic — and the stories behind them.
+ Scheduling note: NextDraft will be off on Wednesday because I am getting some oral surgery. It will be a nice break from the daily news!
