by Don Hall

NEWSFLASH: The Coronavirus doesn’t give a shit how you feel about Trump or Biden or Bernie or how much stuff you hoard from the shelves of CostCo. It doesn’t give a flying fuck about your feelings about pronouns, Medicare for All, immigration, or your vaunted opinions on privilege.

I’m not able to self isolate. I have to continue to go to work. So I continually find myself surrounded by people actively rejecting the concept of quarantine.

“This is ridiculous. NCAA cancelled. NFL Draft being moved out of Vegas. Buffets cancelled. Shows cancelled. Fuck this.” She is furiously stabbing her fingers at the touch screen slot machine that has been touched by countless other fingers as she rants. “I went to the store yesterday and it was chaos. People are fucking...” stab “...sheep...” stab “...and using this whole thing to prove some...” stab stab“...point.”

I’ve seen (yes, on Twitter, which I recognize is the equivalent to hearing it uttered by the guy wearing stuffed animals as shoes and muttering to himself about anal bleaching being a prep for alien probing) those who fully eschew the social distancing (what kind of corporate-speak bullshit is that?) are no different than anti-vaxxers. That isn’t the reality I see.

He holds a Corona in his left hand and a Marlboro Light in the right. “It’s not the virus that’s the trouble. It’s the lay-offs and economic panic that will fuck us for years. Now is the best time to buy stock in casino. Dirt cheap right now.”

As of this writing, all Cirque shows have been put on hold. The major Las Vegas resorts are reporting single digit occupancy rates for the next few weeks. Thousands of bell hops, housekeeping staff, table game dealers, and sports book writers have been laid off. The population of Vegas is comprised of three basic mentalities: Panic, Denial, and WTF?

If there is a through line on these perspectives, it seems to be this: those in the Panic category are shocked at the news cycle and are terrified of the possibility of demise out of inaction, those in Denial are more so out of the same need to control some sort of outcome in the face of the unknown, and the WTFers, like myself, are doing their best to “Keep Calm and Carry On” while keeping an eye on the developments proliferated by the other two.

The Clark County schools are shut down. 50% of all employees of Caesar’s Palace have been temporarily laid off. Strip clubs are shuttering. All of MGM’s and Wynn’s properties are completely closed. The Las Vegas Strip has been nearly abandoned.

“The fucking news is the problem. Hyping it up to be like a plague or something. What a bunch of shit...bars being shut down, restaurants, and all these talking heads trying to make everyone feel like shit for going outta their houses.”

We no longer trust our government.
We no longer trust our news media.
We no longer trust scientific expertise.

We practically hate anyone who simply believes in different things or has different priorities than we do.

At our best, America has been able to rally itself, put aside petty grievances, and move in a semblance of unity. At our worst, our divisions define our failures. It is not a virus that is doing us in at this moment. It is our mistrust and disdain of one another that is paving the gravel road we’re about to march upon.

”I feel like crying, dude.” One of the property’s engineers. A huge body building type. “I mean, with everything dropping out, I’m scared I’ll be out of a job tomorrow. Fucking assholes telling me to quarantine myself. How do I quarantine without a place to fucking live?”

When asked on the casino floor what I think about all of this (and I’m asked this a lot), I tell them not to panic because panic is the fire that burns indiscriminately and without purpose. I also do my best to explain the scientific facts as I understand from a singular source: the World Health Organization. I tell them that I believe this will put Vegas back for years and that in a few month’s time, we’ll be as close to the Great Depression as we have been since 1930.

I tell them that we either survive together as a united front by trusting one another or we simply allow a Mad Max world to envelope us. That buying bullets is better than buying toilet paper but buying concentrated orange juice is better than buying bullets. That you can drink at home and be safer than drinking in the casino but we’ll still be here for as long as we can because that’s the biz.

Mostly I find that if I’m calm but concerned, thoughtful about my facts, and focused on tomorrow while embracing the current moment, I’m doing my job.

In the meantime, I think I’ll have some whiskey and contemplate the next day. I’m certain it will be anything from routine.