Friday, August 21, 2020

PANDEMIC PTSD-- Dr. Fauci's Psychoanalysis--A HOT LZ

     "...forced to wear facial protective covering as indicative of triggering the traumatic Zero Dark Thirty moment..."
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     Incline Village, Nev. (EOC)--Dr. Fauci, in some capacity the point "medico," (a term not included in the Associated Press 2020-22 Stylebook, 55th Edition) for response to the coronavirus emergency, has encouraged throughout the pandemic not to "despair." (1) The immunologist is confident the population will survive. From the outset, Dr. Fauci has juggled charts and graphs, while waving his hands illustrating surge versus mitigation, from the podium at the White House press briefings, but that certainly doesn't make him a mathematician. Any more than using words like "do not despair" qualifies him as a psychologist. The world needs no more patriarchal reassurances from those who lack the qualifications to give guidance.


     Next, there is the so-called "Bin Laden assassin," the hero Navy SEAL who has been claiming credit for liquidating the Al Qaeda arch-villain during a raid a long time ago when Obama was still president. Recently, he found himself standing tall in front of the Admiral for spouting off on social media that wearing a mask is something only done by (term omitted due to its derogatory nature). In addition, the ex-sniper just found himself under  the Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 86, AWOL, or is that just plain 86-ed, from flying on the airline where he made an (term omitted) out of himself in front of the American public he has sworn to protect and defend. (2) 
     Dr. Fauci, in his new role as psychoanalyst, might detect a certain hidden guilt complex in the SEAL lingering from the "Zero Dark-Thirty" raid that's left an indelible mark on the sailor after all these years. It's known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, and was first diagnosed in soldiers during the Vietnam War era. The online source for the American Psychiatric Association describes PTSD as;
     "a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, or rape or who have been threatened with death, sexual violence or serious injury." (3)
Of course it had other names in other wars, but it's the same symptoms, by definition. There is no telling if the Bin Laden raid was the only true near-death encounter the sailor had  but it would be the one that would generally fit the category of a PTSD related experience. 
     In an even more recent episode of yet another soldier who appears to misunderstand his role in being a defender of the American people, Turning Point USA spokesperson Rob Smith reacted to Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti's decision to cut the power on the Hollywood Hills covid-spreading party house, after fair warning;

Los Angeles mayor cuts power to Hollywood part house amid coronavirus pandemic

Turning Point USA spokesperson Rob Smith calls action 'authoritarian' and cites Democratic control as the reason for people moving out of cities.

Author of "Always a Soldier," Rob Smith, in an interview on Fox News on Friday said;


     "Well not only do they want to control the spread of covid, but they want to control every aspect of your life." 
It is unclear in this quote just who "they" are, which is the usual convenient cop-out for fear-mongering and anti-authority rhetoric, he didn't come out of the closet and finger the mayor as responsible. Whether it's just plain standard party propaganda from Turning Point USA or bona fide paranoia on soldier Rob Smith's part, is uncertain. If the latter is true, Dr. Fauci might consider this another case of wartime induced PTSD.
      Smith went on to call out the Democrats as "authoritarian" and responsible for "controlling most of our major cities." Again, controlling what is unclear unless it infers controlling the spread of the killer virus. Turning Point USA characterizes itself as a "Student Movement for Freedom." (4)  Any number of online references show that Smith is a decorated war hero but it is ambiguous as to whether he is currently enrolled in college. Smith's  background at Turning Point only shows an Army Commendation Medal and the Combat Infantry Badge, which calls into question his status as highly decorated. (5) This may be another case for Dr. Fauci's expertise in the field of psychoanalysis. Of course, in the case of Smith, there was also the Gulf War Syndrome, but the symptoms are more physiological. (6) Still, there is lingering doubt as to Smith, as in the case of the Navy SEAL above, of his apparent self- infatuation, possibly brought on by being a spokesperson or person of interest in today's social media driven culture. At the Mayo Clinic website, several symptoms of PTSD are given; 
      "...distressing memories of the traumatic event, severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of the traumatic event, avoiding places, activities or people that remind you of the traumatic event, negative thoughts about yourself, other people or the world." (7)
These are but a few that might indicate the behavior of the sailor on that Delta flight but for a closer look, The New Yorker published a standup after action report following the Bin Laden raid in 2011; 


      "That night, he wore a shirt and trousers in Desert Digital Camouflage, and carried a silenced Sig Sauer P226 pistol, along with extra ammunition; a CamelBak, for hydration; and gel shots, for endurance. He held a short-barrel, silenced M4 rifle. (Others seals had chosen the Heckler & Koch MP7.) A “blowout kit,” for treating field trauma, was tucked into the small of James’s back... He wore a noise-cancelling headset, which blocked out nearly everything besides his heartbeat." (8)
The story, written by Nicholas Schmidle, also notes the team wore night-vision goggles. If Dr, Fauci were to psychoanalyze the sailor who lost it on the Delta flight, he might discover the similarity to being in the confined space of the aircraft resembling the Chinook helicopter, with a veteran in a USMC baseball cap snoozing nearby and forced to wear facial protective covering as indicative of triggering the traumatic Zero Dark Thirty moment. There has been no report if the SEAL was under medication at the time or had too many drinks on the plane that caused him to go on his twitter rage. 
    Two cases alone do not signal a red flare in a hot LZ in the case of combat veterans somehow having trouble coping with covid. Normally soldiers back from the bush in-country dive for cover when a car backfires on a busy boulevard. But then again, with the pandemic possibly still in its incubating stages, the world may be a long way from getting back to "normal."


"Medico," M*A*S*H, "Major Ego," season 7, episode 9, (1978)    https://www.allmovie.com/movie/mash--major-ego-v281232, 
Bin Laden compound photoillustration  by John Ritter from the New Yorker story.

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