the unthinkable amanda ripley sparknotes

Then, once he finally acknowledged that it did and was rapidly spreading, he set up a special task force to address it. In this country, the president first denied that what had begun in China would reach our shores.

What to do about all this was marked by a host of mixed signals from health authorities, economists, politicians and public officials, especially those in the highest reaches of governments. The direct and collateral effect of a form of a coronavirus that became known as Covid-19, including a precipitous plunge of the economy to depths not seen since the 1930s, was also felt everywhere. Within three months the death toll had surpassed all who had perished in the First World War and all those who died in wars in which Americans had fought since the end of World War II. Everywhere people began hunkering down, huddling around television sets, following round-the-clock cable newscasts and trying to come to grips with the daily reports of dramatic increases in the number of cases of those were ill and the numbers of those who had died. And, save for first responders, health professionals and those deemed essential workers - which included police, pharmacists, farm workers, grocers and garbage collectors, millions followed orders to shelter in place. Schools and universities closed, as did parks and services and most businesses. In the late winter of 2020, the people of United States and those of many other countries around the world came to understand the significance of Camus’ words as a rampaging respiratory virus brought everything to a standstill. There have been as many plagues as wars in our history yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.” Those words of Albert Camus are uncannily timely. “Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky.

The unthinkable amanda ripley sparknotes