The US coronavirus death toll keeps rising – but outside of the DC bubble, it’s business as usual

As a maskless Donald Trump addresses reporters at the White House, John T Bennett observes people in a beach town three hours from the capital are alarmingly relaxed about the pandemic

Donald Trump talks to the press in New Jersey yesterday (AFP/Getty)

Donald Trump was addressing reporters early one evening last week, but no one in a beach town about three hours from Washington seemed to care.

The president had his head down, reading from prepared remarks about the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed at least 163,500 people in the United States.

He was not wearing a mask. He never does at the White House. And rarely anywhere else that’s not a medical facility.

The salty smell of a calm ocean awaiting tropical storm Isaias was the air along a downtown street – a packed street. Every available table was taken, and groups strolled about as the president took his first question, according to a television over a bar no one was allowed to approach, must less sit at.

Some folks wore masks. Some didn’t.

On the streets of Washington DC, just about everyone wears a mask these days. We go to great lengths to social distance, sometimes pulling our masks tight and diving into shrubbery or even a busy street.

The nation’s capital mostly deals in drama lately, and its residents are all too eager to perform a little pandemic theatre. They love a cause, and feeling a part of something. Forget your mask while doing something as mundane as checking the mail? In Washington, you’re an instant pariah, certain to have your mask-donning neighbours stare angry daggers through your soul.

But just three hours away, no one confronts you if you’re not masked up. No one dives into the street or tries to bury their nasal receptors in the sand on the beach if you venture within six feet of their facial passages.

Brush past someone on a crowded sidewalk as lifeguard whistles signal danger in the water? There are no panicked eyes looking at you like you’re purposely trying to infect their owner.

Most folks were trying, or being respectful of those who were. In Washington, there is a certain sense of partial paralysis. But outside the DC bubble, for a few days in this shore community a few hours east, there was a distinct business-as-usual feel.

Good luck finding a table just for a quick drink. But if you’re lucky enough to, the Covid-era people watching says a lot.

People were out, enjoying their vacations after months of being cooped up. Teenagers scurried about in groups, laughing and whispering. Maskless. A couple peddled by on bikes. Maskless. A family of five waited in line for ice cream. Only mum was masked up.

Recreation appears to have trumped convalescence. There will be no flattening of the curve now. The genie of summer then school is too far out of the bottle. It’s not going back in.

As the ocean waves smacked against the beach, the president was still talking on the muted TV inside the seaside restaurant. Only this correspondent seemed remotely interested in his words. Everyone else was too busy living their lives, getting back to normal, even as the death toll mounts.

Yours,

John T Bennett
Washington DC bureau chief