The Coronavirus Pandemic: No Time for Downplaying

By now, I’m sure, you’ve read about the drama surrounding a Naval ship and its captain. The headline in the New York Times read, “Captain of Aircraft Carrier Pleads for Help as Virus Cases Increase Onboard.” The subheading read as follows: “‘We are not at war,’ the captain of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt wrote. ‘Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.’”

This makes for grim reading, as much reading does these days. I want to fasten on one line of the Times’s story: “A senior Navy official on Sunday sought to play down the urgency of the situation on the Roosevelt . . .”

HW

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Heather Wolf

By now, I’m sure, you’ve read about the drama surrounding a Naval ship and its captain. The headline in the New York Times read, “Captain of Aircraft Carrier Pleads for Help as Virus Cases Increase Onboard.” The subheading read as follows: “‘We are not at war,’ the captain of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt wrote. ‘Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.’”

This makes for grim reading, as much reading does these days. I want to fasten on one line of the Times’s story: “A senior Navy official on Sunday sought to play down the urgency of the situation on the Roosevelt . . .”