Inside the Converted Washington Motel for Coronavirus Patients

As COVID-19 spreads, one county took an unprecedented step to quarantine and isolate patients to avoid overcrowding hospitals: buying and converting a $4 million motel. If you have trouble reading this message, [view it in a browser](. [Inside the Converted Washington Motel for Coronavirus Patients]( Kent Bowl was packed last Friday night. It's busy season for the Washington state bowling alley—the temperatures are still chilly and football’s over, which means people are looking to entertain themselves inside. In many ways, it was like any other late-winter night: dozens of bowlers lining up to get their slick-soled shoes and candy-colored bowling balls, blue cans of Bud Light dotting the border of the lanes, the rhythm of pins crashing down. Everything was normal, except for one major difference: Less than a week earlier, Washington Governor Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency over a deadly outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel strain of coronavirus currently crashing its way across the globe.[Read More]( [It's Not 'Politicizing the Crisis' to Monitor How the President Is Handling a Crisis]( OK first of all, it's not "politicizing the crisis" to monitor (or even criticize!) what your elected leaders are doing in a democracy. It's citizenship. It is self-government. It is your duty. It does not go on pause during a pandemic. You elected someone to represent your interests in government, and your job is to keep an eye on them and make sure they are doing so. If they are doing a bad job, or misrepresenting the situation, call it out. Your health and safety are on the line. That the situation is scary is not a reason to suddenly trust everything politicians say, especially if they have an extensive record of lying and incompetent administration.[Read More]( [I Did Not Expect Doomsday To Be This Tacky]( I have thought through a lot of doomsday scenarios in my many decades on this planet, but I have to say: I did not expect the apocalypse to be this tacky. Yet here we are! We are in the first act of a global pandemic. We are tense, we are confused, we are expressing our anxiety through bulk toilet tissue purchases. But things hit a real Covid-19 fever pitch in one dizzying moment around 8:30 p.m. Pacific time last night, after I hope those of you on the East Coast and Midwest were in bed having whatever counts as safe sex right now. In one bizarre thirty-minute period, things officially jumped the rails.[Read More]( [Trump's Coronavirus Speech Was a Cry for Help]( An unnerving revelation struck me as I watched the president* deliver his address to the nation on Wednesday night concerning this country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. At this point in his woebegone administration*, I much prefer the president* as the vituperative seventh-grade name-calling goon that he is on the stump than I do his periodic attempts to be a world leader. The former is more natural, more authentic, and therefore, and in a perverse way, more comforting. The latter just seems dangerous and weird.[Read More]( [Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson Have Tested Positive For Coronavirus]( As the number of positive Coronavirus cases continue to grow across the globe, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have announced that they have tested positive for COVID-19 while in pre-production for a film in Australia. The couple contracted the virus while in the Gold Coast for Baz Luhrmann’s untitled Elvis Presley movie. They are the first major U.S. celebrities to publicly share the news of a diagnosis.[Read More]( [The Administration* Screwed Up the Coronavirus Response From the Jump and Is Now Covering Its Ass]( The administration* screwed this up from jump and now is engaged in an all-out effort to cover its ass, not only on its original bungling, but also on the continuing consequences of that bungling. And any charge that this particular administration* is blocking congressional oversight is prima facie true at this point.[Read More]( [Read More on Esquire.com]( [Join today!]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( [Privacy Notice]( esquire.com ©2020 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019