Fanis the Bodyguard Episode 44 Projecting in Wuhan Virus Age

                Kera and Fanis are sort of displaced.  Given that they were born and raised in America but have been living in England the last year, you would say that staying in Kalamata, Greece would be displaced. If, however, you consider that both of them are of Greek descent and they are staying with Fanis’ family in Kalamata, maybe they’re not as displaced as they appear.  Fanis’ family is very conservative as a reaction to the nanny state politicians that rule Greece and caused it’s economic demise.  Despite the Wuhan Virus being a global pandemic, like all things, all eyes are focused on America.  In America, liberals and mainstream media are commenting on how they tried to warn President Trump that the Wuhan Virus was serious but he downplayed it.

                Fanis’ cousin Kolokatroni asks him, “I thought President Trump banned travel from China in January”

                “He did.  The media lies; what can I tell you?”

                “But, if I know this 8,150 (5,094 mi) kilometers from DC, how does America not know?”

                “Liberals constantly mess up and then blame conservatives for the very thing they’re guilty of.  In this case, the media downplayed the Wuhan Virus in January and attacked Trump for overreacting.  Now that they were wrong, they are pretending it was the other way around.  They’ve been doing this since at least 1960.  Half of America hasn’t figured it out yet so I’m beginning to think they never will.”

                Kera chimed in, “In English, we call it ‘projection’”

                “Don’t you have the articles on the internet to prove it?”

                “Yes” Fanis takes out his phone and searches, “See, this is a tweet from Vox.  They are a mainstream news organization.  They ask themselves, ‘is this going to be a deadly pandemic?  ‘No.’  They do say that it may not be a good idea to travel to China but it’s just part of a family of respiratory viruses.”

                “There you go.  Why don’t people broadcast that?”

                “They did.  It’s on the internet.  The problem is when the mainstream media are the ones lying to you; it’s harder to get it to the most amount of people.  We post it on the internet but the liberals control twitter, Facebook and social media too.”

                Kera sarcastically retorted, “Yes, because Trump is never on twitter.”

                “Many conservatives have been banned from twitter, thousands more have been shadow banned. They force people to stop following them hoping they won’t notice.  Just because they let the president, doesn’t mean that all conservatives have freedom of speech on social media.”

                “They took down the tweet so what’s the big deal?”

                “They’re destroying evidence.”

                “Oh come on!”

                “When you tweet something wrong, you write a retraction and apologize.  You don’t spread it around the world and then pretend you didn’t say it.”

                Kolokatroni listened to the argument and offered, “It seems like the same people that called Trump a racist for banning travel from China are the ones claiming they always knew.”

                “It only seems that way because that’s what happened.”

                “Okay, my dear cousin” Kera announced challengingly.  Although Kera and Fanis were cousins, Kolokatroni was on the other side of the family so Kera and Kolokatroni were not related.  “I’m going to ask the same question that Vox did.  Are you afraid to travel?”

                “No, I might not go to Italy or China but other than that, I’m okay”

                Kera gave an apologetic look at their hosts and grabbed Fanis by the arm and dragged him outside to talk in private.  “Okay, well we have a private plane so we’re going to use it because I still need to do business so I’m going to take you up on that offer.”

                “You know I have a death wish so we could have done this at any time.”

                “I know that you’re not scared but I am.”

                “You decide where and when we go; not me.”

                “Right, so this is what I’m thinking.  In Greece, there have been 743 cases and 17 deaths.  That’s a 2.29% fatality rate, which is like almost double the United States.”

                “1.3 is not half of 2.29”

                “Shut up.  Close enough.  Trinidad has 57 cases and nobody has died.  Their fatality rate is 0 so that’s where we’re going.”

                “I assume you have a client there too.”

                “Of course.  Plenty of places have had nobody die.  Hell, even some states do but we’re getting out of here.  It’s time to go back to our lives!”

                “Fine by me.”

                Now it was time for the hard part; telling Fanis’ family that they needed to leave.  They weren’t going to tell them they were going to Trinidad but were going to pretend that they had to go back to Patra, where Kera had a house, to see that family again.  As it was March 25, 2020, which is Greek independence Day, they spun it that they wanted to spend the holiday with them before leaving.  As expected, Fanis’ Aunt and cousins put up a fight but in the end, they decided to have one last night of drinking before they left the following day.  Kera and Fanis obliged and the next day, they returned their rental car near the private air strip and flew to San Juan, Trinidad. 

                While on the plane, Fanis declared, “I’m glad people are still buying Chinese goods.”

                “There are fewer clients but for the most part, there are sane people left that realize not everything that was ever in China has the virus on it.”

                “That’s refreshing.  Since this pandemic started, there hasn’t been much sanity in the world.”

                “No, just mass hysteria and constant chants on how we’re all going to die.”

                “I’m thinking that the government knows they’re overhyping it, otherwise Pelosi wouldn’t have pulled the shit she did.”

                “Or, like we just said, nobody is thinking rationally and Pelosi is just one more insane person during this crisis.”

                “True.  At least people were sane enough to wreck her for including the riders to the Coronavirus relief package.  She really face planted on that one.”

                “I know, and then she gives a fucking press conference about how she understands the gravity of what she’s doing and how the bill should only have things related to the Coronavirus.  She was the one that blocked the bill and wanted to add non-virus shit in there.”

                “We have the documents.  Luckily, President Trump told everyone about it.  Others did but the president has a bigger audience.  He told the world she tried to get things in there that liberals have been advocating for 10 years.  He categorically said he wasn’t signing it thus ending all hope that Pelosi had that given the pressure, he would sign anything.”

                “Has she learned nothing about that man in the last three years?”

                “I guess not.”

                “Did he give examples?”

                “Yea, windmills that will kill birds and real estate and ending drilling.  I can add more.  She wanted 35 Million dollars for the Kennedy performing arts center in D.C., a bailout for the post office, affirmative action reports and diversity of board members in companies.  Oh yea, and since the airlines are struggling, they need to reverse their carbon emissions by 2025 and inform fliers how much carbon and oil the flight they are about to take will burn.”

                “Yet, she probably travels in a private plane.”

                “Well, yea because, you know, individual behavior doesn’t matter. That’s what they always say when people point out all the biggest advocates of climate change pollute the most and have the biggest carbon footprint.”

                As it is a long flight to Trinidad, Kera slept for most of it and Fanis watched movies, drank and slept.  Before they knew it, they landed in San Juan, Trinidad.  The tropical sun felt good on their skin as March is still cold in Greece.  Trinidad has the best economy in the Caribbean and is one of a handful of islands that is not in debt.  Due to this, they are very wary of illegal immigrants coming into the country as it will bring down their economy.  In Trinidad, you will see lush green jungle everywhere you look, which is in stark contrast to the massive amounts of Kentucky Fried Chicken you will find.  As a general rule, Fanis hates going to American chain restaurants when abroad but the East Indian food is extremely spicy and Fanis, like most Greeks, can’t handle spicy food too well.  They go to a bar and order rum and cokes.  Later, they will switch to Carib, which is the local beer.  The locals were a little cautious of the white people that came in as drinking rum doesn’t really show you know too much about Trinidad as all Caribbean islands are known for rum.  When they ordered the Carib though, they quickly opened up and they were very cordial.

                Trinidad is technically an English speaking island but the accents are very difficult for Fanis and Kera to understand.  From prior experiences, they know it’ll take about 24 hours to get used to it but they’re not now.  They start talking to a woman who looked to be in her 20s named Vashti.  She asks, “Americans?”

                “Yes” Fanis answers

                “Oh good.  Welcome to Trinidad.”

                “Thank you”

                “Can you tell me why Rachel Maddow wants to ban your president from giving press conferences about the virus?  Doesn’t she want to know what’s going on?  Do Americans care?”

                Kera responded, “Yes, they do but she’s saying that Trump is lying and giving people false information.”

                Fanis interjects, “It’s funny, we were just in Greece and we had this same conversation there.  Maddow, like the rest of the mainstream media, are projectionists.”

                Kera challenged, “At least this time you don’t have to try to translate it into a different language.”          

                “I don’t know if we use that term here.” Vashti observed

                Fanis explained, “Maddow was the loudest advocate of Russian collusion.  She is the queen of misinformation so accusing anyone of spouting misinformation is hypocritical.”

                “Yes, what you call ‘projection’ we call ‘hypocritical.’”

                “They are synonyms. “

                Kera blurted out, “She’s a Rhodes Scholar!”

                “That doesn’t mean she’s not a hypocrite” Fanis retorted, “In fact, she got sued by a linguistic professor accusing her of defamation.  Maddow’s own lawyer, Theodore Boutrous Jr. argued that she was clearly offering up her unique expression and she speaks with quintessential statements of rhetorical hyperbole incapable of being true of false.  It’s on the record; she exaggerates and says things that can’t be considered true.  Her own lawyer said that.”

                “People will say anything to get out of a lawsuit.”

                “Lying to a court is a crime.  We have to assume that what she said was true.”

                Vashti interrupted, “Is it just her?”

                Fanis laughed uncontrollably, “Oh, no, she’s not even the worst.”

                “Who is?”

                “That’s a debatable question.  I would say that the worst about the Wuhan Virus would have to go to the AP.  Also arguable, but I think they have a slight edge.”

                “Why don’t you tell me what it was and I’ll decide for myself.”

                “Excellent idea; they claim that crises are good because communities come together to help each other out.  Forget that there is no evidence of this.”

                “Who would want a crisis?  Why would they say that?”

                “You have to understand that the media will attack President Trump for everything he says.  In this case, he said we have to be careful that the solution isn’t worse than the problem.  If people lose their jobs or small business owners lose their businesses, it can lead to severe depression and suicide.”

                “That’s common sense.  How is that controversial?”

                “The AP said that suicides go down because of the whole coming together.”

                “That’s absurd.”

                “Of course it is, and there’s no evidence of it.  In fact, if you look at suicides during the Great Depression, they were at the highest level ever recorded.  Sounds like people coming together for that crisis wasn’t stopping people from killing themselves.”

                “Yea, it’s nice to have friends but if you have no income, then it might not cheer you up much.”

                “These are the same jackasses that claim if a conservative speaks at a college campus, it will cause severe anxiety to liberal students and cause massive psychological trauma.  The same people that claim that now are saying that nobody commits suicides when the economy collapses and it will actually have a positive effect on the psyche.”

                “Remind me to never go to America for therapy.” Vashti blurted out

                “Probably a good call.  Just you watch, when a Democrat is president, you will never see a media source fact check something ever again.  It’s only when Republicans are in office that every outlet pretends to be an unbiased fact checker.”

                Fanis and Kera leave the bar and head to the hotel.  After checking in, they go to sleep as they desperately tried to wait till bedtime in Trinidad to avoid getting jetlagged.  Given how long the flight was, it was difficult as sleeping on a plane isn’t a very rejuvenating rest. 

                The next day, Fanis and Kera wake up.  They go to a sidewalk vendor to buy a breakfast burrito type food but instead of pita bread, it’s a crepe.  They call it ‘doubles.’  It took a lot of insisting that they can’t handle spicy food so anything they consider spicy needed to be removed from the double.  This causes two problems.  One, the locals think taking the spicy herbs out of the double ruins the double and secondly, given that the locals can handle spicy food very well, they are not very good judges on what is too spicy for a Greek.  He gets his doubles and then heads back to the hotel room.  Kera and Fanis eat breakfast and are pleasantly surprised that the double isn’t too hot for them. 

                They go to meet the client and Fanis greets the security guard.  Instinctively, he sticks his hand out but the security guard looks at his hand and back up at him with an apologetic grin.  Fanis withdraws his hand and nods, “Right, the no handshaking thing.”

                “Yea, I don’t know if you heard but there’s a nasty virus going around the world.”

                “I think I heard about that somewhere.

                Both of them laughed.  The man introduced himself as Venu and Fanis was beginning to wonder if everyone in Trinidad’s name started with a ‘V.’  Venu asked, “How do you think Trump is handing this?”

                “Okay.  I’d give him like a B-.  there are some things I don’t agree with but for the most part, I think he’s done a good as job as can be expected in this situation.”

                “Do you think Biden would have been better?”

                “Oh God no!  That’s why he hasn’t said much.  When he does say something, he normally repeats exactly what President Trump did and then attacks the president for his handling.   Nothing he says is coherent.  He was just on the news.  They were trying to attack President Trump for his comment that the solution may be worse than the problem; in that people will lose jobs and businesses with the shut down.  They asked Biden about it and he rejoined, ‘we have to take care of the cure because that will make the problem worse no matter what.’”

                “What does that mean?”

                “Beats me!  I don’t think Biden knows.”

                “I think Trump will tear him apart during the debates; if you still have them.”

                “I’m pretty sure we are still having them.  If not, President Trump is already practicing.  During a press conference, he brought up that Biden called him xenophobic for banning travel from China back in January in reaction to the Wuhan Virus.  Then the president says, ‘I’m not sure if he knows what it means but that’s what he called me.’”

                Venu laughed, “Would you say most Americans approve of him or disapprove?”

                “I live in London now so it’s hard to tell.  According to a Gallup poll though, Trump’s approval rating is at 49%.  That’s the highest it’s ever been.  As for the virus itself, he’s at 60% approval.”

                “That’s pretty good.”

                “Yea, but actually historically, president’s have favorable ratings during crises.  I think people are so scared that change is just one more thing to worry about so they’d rather avoid it.”

                “That makes sense.”

                “We’ll see if this scare is over by the election.  If it is, we’ll see how many of those 60% still support him.”

                “With something like this, it’s important to come together and put petty squabbles and differences aside.”

                “I would agree but the liberals haven’t.  I shouldn’t say that actually.  The governors of California and New York, Newsom and Cuomo, both hate President Trump and they have gone back and forth attacking each other for three years.  All three came together to discuss solutions and there was mutual respect in the meetings.  It may be because California and New York were hit worse than any other state; especially New York, which has half of all the nation’s cases.”

                “Why do you say the liberals aren’t then?”

                “Everyone else is attacking him; especially the media.  Like the bill they just passed.  It was all set to go then Pelosi threw in all these liberal agendas and the bill was delayed.  Then, you have the fed that keeps lowering interest rates trying to get to digital money.”

                “Is that bad?”

                “Yes, forget that it leads to negative interest rates and you have no way to get your money out of the bank where you know it’ll lose value. With digital money, all your transactions can be tracked and the government really is a surveillance state.”

                “It does that anyway.”

                “Fine, but why make it easier for them?”

                “I see your point.”

                Kera came out of her meeting looking frustrated.  Kera and Fanis had an agreement that they never discussed what she did.  Fanis was her bodyguard and that was all he needed to know.  Even why an international Chinese art dealer needs a bodyguard was not something they brought up with each other.  They drive back to the hotel and decide to go walking around the city.  There aren’t many people walking and there is a lot of tall plants that make visibility limited and provides many places to hide.  While walking, Fanis hears a woman yell, “Don’t touch me!”

                Fanis and Kera look at each other and Kera indicates with her look that he should go check it out.  Fanis walks toward the sound of the yell and finds Vashti and a guy with his hands up.  She scolds, “Don’t you know that there’s a social distancing in effect?”

                “Oh come on, you don’t believe that shit do you?  The fatality rate isn’t as high as people are saying.”

                Fanis uttered, “Yea, I read that in the Wall Street Journal too but you need to understand that people are worried so maybe don’t be grabbing people.”

                “Why don’t you mind your business?”

                Fanis nods and turns to Vashti, “Hi Vashti, is he bothering you?”

                “Yes” she announces while staring at him

                “There, now it is my business because you’re disturbing my friend.”

                “You don’t look like her friend” the man observed as he walked towards Fanis. 

                “Why?  Her friends can’t be white?”

                As he approached, Fanis saw him winding up for a punch so he jutted out his right palm and connected with his midsection knocking the wind out of him and making him forget that he was throwing a punch.  He exhaled deeply and grabbed his midsection for a moment before standing straight.  Fanis calmly articulated, “Why don’t we talk about how the virus may not be as deadly as we think so the nice lady won’t be so panicked.”

                The assailant took a couple quick breaths and pronounced toward Vashti, “See, it’s the amount of infected people that matters, not the identified cases.”

                Fanis added, “What you see on the news is just people who have been tested.  They usually only test people who go to the hospital.  That would be like going to an oncology ward and testing people for cancer and pretending it’s representative of the entire population.  You may find 90% of the people you tested had cancer but that doesn’t mean 90% of the population will get cancer.”

                Vashti nods, “What are we supposed to do then?  Test everyone on the planet?”

                “No, but you can just take a random group of people and test them.”

                “There’s a shortage of tests so that’s not a good idea.”

                “It would help with the hysteria and panic but I see your point.”

                The assailant interrupted, “They’ve already done small tests.  On January 31, countries sent planes to evacuate people from Wuhan, China.  They then tested them when they landed and 0.9% of them tested positive.”

                Vashti blurted out, “That’s a lot!  I think like over 0.6% is highly contagious”

                Theo retorted, “Ah, but you must think of it this way.  If that were true, given the population of Wuhan, 178,000 people should have been infected.  That is 30 times more than the reported cases.  If we go by the 178,000 number, then the fatality rate is 10 times lower than what it is now base solely on the cases.”

                “Well, China is a communist country.  We got in this mess because they covered up the severity so why should we trust them?”

                The assailant replied, “They did the same thing in a village in northern Italy called Vo.  It’s in the Padua province.  On March 6, all 3,300 people in the village were tested and 90 had the virus.”

                “That seems higher than 0.9”

                “It is; in fact it’s 2.7%.  Given the province has 955,000 people, 26,000 should be infected with the virus.  Padua, though, is only reporting 198 cases.  This is 130 times lower than what it should be based on the Vo study.  If this is accurate, than Italy’s death rate isn’t 8%, it’s .06%”

                “Wow, that’s a big difference.”

                “And these are the worst two countries.”

                Fanis articulated, “It’s worth mentioning that they did do it in places that weren’t hit hard.  Iceland did a similar study.  They took 2,000 asymptomatic people and only 1% had the virus.  Based on that, they applied it to the United States and believe that ten times more people than reported have been infected.  Again, if this is true then the fatality rate isn’t as high as people think.”

                “I hope they’re right.”

                The assailant adds, “Well, now that you have the facts that should calm you down, why don’t you come back to my place.”

                “No thank you.”

                Vashti walked toward Fanis but he could tell she wasn’t going to him but using him as a human shield so she could get away.  Fanis gave the assailant a look and shook his head slightly signaling that he shouldn’t follow.  The assailant took a couple steps after her before he did this but now stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Fanis.  They were of similar size and Kera walked Vashti away for she knew what was about to happen.  The assailant threw his hands out to shove Fanis but Fanis chopped his arms up and down harmlessly away from him.  This left his right hand cocked at his waist and he thrust it out similarly as before in the same spot.  Unlike last time, this didn’t discourage the assailant from fighting as he charged Fanis and tackled him to the ground.  The assailant landed two punches to Fanis’ face before Fanis gripped his arms.  He managed to rock forward and back putting his right foot on the assailant’s thigh and flipping him over him.  Both men got up and the assailant cried out, “You mother cunt.  You cock blocked me.”

                He came charging again but, this time, Fanis was ready and he fell to the side sticking his left leg out.  When the assailant got near, Fanis kicked at the back of the assailant’s foot with his right leg and tripped him over his left.  The assailant fell flat on his face and Fanis shot up.  “You had no chance man.  The only thing I blocked is you forcing yourself on her.”

                The assailant got up and the two men circled each other.  The assailant jabbed at Fanis, which he dodged but didn’t go for a counterpunch because the assailant was in a defensive position.  Fanis wasn’t going to initiate a strike but, instead, waited to counter.  The assailant locked arms with Fanis and Fanis smiled.  Fanis kicked at the side of the assailants knee collapsing it.  He then used the other leg to push inward on his other knee.  Fanis held him at arm’s length with a firm grip holding him down so he couldn’t hop to relieve pressure off his legs.  Fanis continued to kick away at the sides of the assailant’s knees as he held him up.  The assailant struggled and yelled out in pain as his own body weight was destroying his knees.  Fanis then pulled the assailant in and bent his head using the top of his head as a battering ram driving it into the assailant’s nose breaking it on impact.  Then, Fanis let go and the assailant collapsed grabbing his knees.  Fanis took a couple steps back and ran forward kicking his opponent in the head rendering him unconscious instantly.  Fanis took a deep breath and walked back toward the hotel.

                When he got to the hotel, he was surprised to see Vashti in their room.  Kera had a zip lock of ice and a cloth waiting for him.  Fanis shook his head, “I didn’t punch him.”

                “That’s a first” opined Kera

                “I know, there was an opportunity for me to just kick out his knees.”

                “I thought only girls kicked” she teased

                “Tell that to the guy lying on the ground with torn MCL, LCL or ACLs”

                “Or a combination.”

                “Yes, or a combination.”

                “Maybe we should go to Thailand and you can test your kickboxing skills there.”

                Vashti broke up the family teasing fest and cried out, “Thanks for helping me.”

                “No problem” Fanis replied

                They went out to a bar and Fanis loved how so much of Trinidadian music was about food.  When a song with a fast beat came on about biting insects, he burst out laughing.  Vashti asked what was so funny and Fanis observed, “In America and Europe, songs are normally about love; either finding it or heat break. Some rap songs are about drugs or sticking it to authority and doing your own thing.  Here, songs are about food and insects.  It’s just different that’s all.”

                “I can’t tell if you’re making fun of my culture or not.”

                “No, absolutely not.  I like new experiences.  It’s different is all I’m saying.”

                They ate at a roti restaurant where you use bread as your utensils.  What they were eating was something Kera and Fanis recognized well; chicken and lamb but the sauces and spices they were unfamiliar with.  With Vashti’s help, they avoided the spicier ones.”

                Vashti inquired, “So, I know it may not be as fatal as we think, but do they have any way to treat it?”

                “Yea, there’s a drug that’s usually used for auto-immune disorders or arthritis called ‘Plaquenill’ when combined with a Z-pack, it seems to work very well.  They tested 36 people and everyone that got the treatment, 16 of them were the control group, were virologically cured.”

                “Meaning what?”

                “They didn’t have any strain of the virus anymore.”

                “Not a lot of people”

                “No, but 100% success rate is a good start.  This was in France.”

                “Does that matter?”

                “No, I guess it doesn’t”

                “Wasn’t Trump talking about some hydro-something and a weird ‘a’ word.”

                “Hydrocychloroquine and Azigthromycin, those are the scientific names for Plaquenill and Z-pack.”

                “Oh, alright.  I like yours better.”

                “Either one is fine.  The largest study so far was Remdesivir, which was in Nebraska.  They are only in Phase 1 in trial by a company called Gilead Sciences but so far so good.”

                “What are the phases?”

                “Phase 1, they make sure it’s safe for humans.  They test it on healthy individuals and see if they get sick from it.  Then phase 2, they try it on sick individuals and compare it to a group that they give a placebo, or something they pretend is the cure, to see if the group that actually got it does better.  The last phase is to test it against the standard treatment for the disease to see if it outperforms that.”

                “It’s like a tournament?”

                “Yes, but more like a final four because the first phase 1, you’re not beating anyone.  You’re just supposed to not make a healthy person sick.”

                “Right, so you really have to only beat two groups.”

                “Yes, and you add more people in every phase.”

                “That makes sense.  If this is only in phase 1 though, then how can it be effective?”

                “For existing drugs, you can skip phase 1 because you know it’s safe for humans and doesn’t make people sick because you went through phase 1 for what it is currently proscribed for.”

                “That’s good then.  It speeds up the process.”

                “Yes, now we just need to hope it works.”

                “So, when they say phase one for the R one, they really mean phase 2?”

                “For all three because all three are commonly used to treat other things.”

                “Yes, right, you did say that.”

                After another night of drinking, Fanis and Kera said good bye to Vashti and walked back to their hotel.  Kera shook her head, “You know, you could have fucked that girl.”

                “I don’t think so.  She didn’t seem interested.”

                “Fanis, when you save a girl from being attacked, it’s a major turn on and they normally want to thank you. The more common way they know how is to fuck you.”

                “How does that make any sense?  You stop someone from sexually assaulting them so now they owe you sex?  They don’t know if they like you, so in a sense, you just trade one forced sexual partner for another.”

                “Except that the other isn’t forcing you.  You may have forced yourself but you’re not afraid to say no.  You’re already turned on because it’s hot when a guy fights for you and protects you.  All this, we call consensual sex, which is not sexual assault.”

                “Everything is sexual assault nowadays.”

                “Only when you turn on TV and listen to some crazy bitch protesting.  They are screaming so loud because they’re denying a simple fact that no matter what they think and how ashamed they want us to feel for thinking this way, most women do.  If you went home with her, you would not be taking advantage of her.  Just because she’s not doing it because she likes you, doesn’t make it’s rape because she’s allowing you inside her.”

                “If she were to go to the cops afterward, I wonder if they would see it that way.”

                “They would if she told the truth.  If she lied, then she’s a fucking bitch.”

                “Yes, but women do lie about that shit because they’re embarrassed.”

                “Not as many as you think.  I know it has happened to you but you need to move on.  It’s over.  The cops didn’t even believe her; they knew she was full of shit.  Get over it and stop thinking that every woman is trying to accuse you of sexual assault.”

                “I’ll keep that in mind for next time but she’s already gone.”

                “The sad thing is you won’t”

                They get ready for bed and go to sleep.  The next morning, it’s back on the plane and heading back to London.  On the plane, Kera inquired, “What did you say was the technical term for that drug that may help with the Caronavirus?”

                “Hydroxocychloroquine”

                “Yea, the Governor of Nevada just banned it.”

                “What?”

                “Governor SIsolak signed an order banning it.”

                “Why?”

                Kera kept reading the article and then stared incredulously at her phone.  She shook her head, “It says he banned it because Trump touted it as a potential treatment.”

                “Wait, so he’d rather have his constituents die than give President Trump a win or prove him right on something?”

                “It would appear so.”

                “So, all he cares about is attacking the president?”

                “Yes, that is what we established.”

                “They say level 6 is the highest form of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) but I’m making a TDS level 7.  If you want people to die rather than prove Trump right, then you’ve reached level 7 status.”

                “I can accept that but going forward don’t let anyone in that hasn’t advocated for people’s deaths in order to hurt Trump.”

                “I will rely on you to keep my vigilant in rating the TDS levels of people.”

                “Considering I’m at some level, that may be difficult.”

                “It would take one to know one wouldn’t it?”

                “In that case, yea”

                Fanis laughed and Kera giggled.  She got somber and queried, “In all seriousness though, what happens if this goes on for a long time?”

                “We all have two lives; the one we learn from and the one after that.  The way to true happiness is through suffering.  We can’t let this break us.  There are so many things out there that can kill us so what’s one more?  We will get through this.”

                “I’d hug you right now but I’m still doing this social distancing.”

                “Air hug then”

                The two cousins stood six feet from each other and hugged themselves.  To someone like Fanis who loves hugs, this was the worst part of the new Wuhan Virus world.