Summer 2020

I type this overlooking rubbish from across the alley. The streets of Austin are deserted, yet, among the usual curiosities, these overflowing bins were leaking masks and yellowed copies of The Daily Texan. Even this traditionally gun-touting, rules-flouting state has been cowed into quiet solitude. Over the past decade, American foreign policy experts have spent more time strategising nuclear war (and according to one intelligence source, a Brady-less Super Bowl) than a probable pandemic in a post-SARS world. Global government responses are faltering—clapping for health workers has replaced necessary government expenditure and melodramatic flyovers have distracted from meaningful healthcare support...