Below is a story I wrote quickly tonight after the idea popped into my head while working in the garage. It is very unlikely to happen, but it is a possibility. I wrote this not to scare people, but to share the ideas in this story.
It is February, 2021. President Kamala Harris holds a press conference to talk about the increasing spread of COVID-19, and the new COVID-20 that has been identified.
An unseen announcer, "Ladies, Gentlemen, and Non-Binaries. The President of these United States, The Estimable Kamala Harris."
The President steps up to the podium in the Press Room of the White House, "My fellow Americans, I come to you tonight with a solemn message I never expected to be in the position to deliver. With over 250,000 people dead with COVID-19, and more dying every day of that and the new COVID-20, our diligent track and tracing corps have been working the front lines of this pandemic. What they have found is that the virus is spreading faster than ever before."
"They have discovered through tracking and tracing methods that this is due mainly to the lockdown protesters and masking shirkers. But a rapidly growing number of cases are spread through an insidious new vector."
"Our transportation industry is the newest spreader of the viral infections. Truckstops, warehouses, and loading docks are the new epicenters. If we do not get these viruses under control, we will lose so many more Americans, especially truckers who are a backbone to this nation. This is a desperate situation, calling for desperate measures."
"I have instructed the COVID Taskforce to come up with policies and procedures to stop COVIDs this month. They have come back to me with three solid proposals that are part of an Executive Order that I will sign tonight."
"I have called up the National Guard and Reserves to active Federal duty to implement the following policies."
"One. Close all Interstate Highway systems, nationwide for two weeks. This will allow the truckstops, warehouses, and loading docks to be completely cleaned and sanitized. I will be asking that the trucking companies, and independent truckers do the same thing. We have to eliminate this virus now before many, many more Americans die."
"Two. The activated National Guard and Reserves will work with the local and state police departments to arrest and detain anyone not wearing proper protective equipment as required by the CDC and state health authorities. These people will be properly cared for and housed in sanitary facilities built for this situation. Part of this care will be a thorough sanitation and vaccination."
"Item three. These precautions can only work with the help of local leaders and citizens that do what is needed to contain these viruses, and are willing to help others do the same thing. So today I am ordering the creation of a new all volunteer branch of the US Military called the Health Corps."
"Our new Health Corps service will enlist local leaders, health professionals, and citizens who can help us contain and beat these virus. This is the greatest challenge of our time, and cannot be done only by the military, police and health care professionals."
"Please join the fight against the COVIDs and other viruses today by going to health.corps.gov today to sign up. We need people to do many different jobs, and your skills in your day job may be just what we need to help win this war on viruses."
"With your help, we will have this accomplished by spring, and we will be able to get this nation back to work. Thank you and good night."
This speech stunned almost everyone watching. The press corps tried to shout questions to the president, but zhe walked out of the room, not even acknowledging the press. All the network feeds switched back to the commentators that had seen an early draft of the president's remarks, so they were not that stunned. These commentators were prepared with talking points from the White House, DNC, and the editors of the news departments. The gushed over how important these steps were, and how decisive the new president is.
Sadly the president and press did not discuss the easily foreseen results of these policies. It took a few days to do it, but the National Guard from every state, and Reserve shut down the entire highway transportation system. Something never done before. At first this shutdown just happened at the borders. But then it spread to the interior of the states, keeping farms from re-supplying the factories and cities.
To reduce dissent in the ranks National Guard units were assigned to other states so that they were not guarding interstates in their home towns. This was done as a measure to prevent corruption. But since the 1920, this was policy in the standing Army, to move personnel every three years, to bases away from their home state.
The current grocery supply system works on such low margins, and with such small supplies since food is perishable, that there is less than a weeks supply of food on the shelves. Local warehouses might have a few days more supply. But no store in the country had access to two weeks of food supply.
Most families do not have pantries that could last a week. Most families in the US were just put in jeopardy of running out of food.
This was most quickly felt in the poor inner cities. Already in a tough situation due to months of riots, political tension, and being ignored by the brief Biden Administration, and then having their hopes raised and quickly dashed by the Harris Administration, these areas were primed to ignite in riots. And that is exactly what happened.
After three nights of looting and burning of grocery stores and government buildings, President Harris gave a secret order the the activated National Guard and Reserves to pack up all the supplies left in grocery store regional supply warehouses within 100 miles of major cities and distribute these goods in an orderly manner to the people in the cities. Zhe knew this was not a long term solution, but it bought them a few days to try to find a better, long term solution.
The normal infrastructure to distribute food and other supplies was through grocery stores and government agencies. But most of those were burned in the areas the President ordered these goods to be distributed in. This led to the National Guard and Reserve trying to distribute food out of the back of semi trailers. Time after time, these makeshift distribution points were over-run by hungry crowds and looters. Many cases the troops opened fire on the looters. This horrific sight completely shocked onlookers and people who saw video of what happened. It looked like something from a news report about another country or a blockbuster hollywood movie.
Despite the President's order to the press not to cover the moving and distributing of these supplies the story was just to big to ignore. At first these riots and killings were seen in viral videos. Social media companies worked hard to remove them quickly, but they were overwhelmed but the large number of the videos of many, many incidences from multiple angles. After five days of these videos being uploaded then removed and blocked, several sites stopped allowing any uploads.
The Harris Administration trying to centrally plan the rapidly rotting and eaten up food supply did so much worse than they hoped. By robbing the areas outside of major cities, they made the suburbs into warzones where neighbors fought neighbors to feed their children. Some gated communities hired private security firms only to fall victim to their own security people or internal fighting when their disaster supplies ran out.
Even the preppers and militias were not fully prepared for this, and had bought more guns, ammo, gold, and silver than food and water. No amount of precious metal could by food in the current situation.
Even resilient communities like the Amish, who could live off their farms for years, could not cope. Their problem was panicked and hungry outsiders that over ran the farms, looting and murdering in their desperation. The Amish died as they lived, not doing evil to anyone, and praying for their enemies as they were struck down.
What is worse is that municipal water systems could not get access to the chemicals they use to treat water. Usually these chemicals are delivered just in time so that the municipalities do not have to store the supplies or deal with expired chemicals. People can only live without water for three days.
When there is a lack of clean water to pump into the water supply system, all they could do is shut down the pressure pumps. Water supplies all over the country lost pressure. No one was ready for that. Especially city fire departments that depend on the city water supply to feed water to hydrants. Without water from fire hydrants, fire departments were useless. And in riots where arsonists are lighting building after building, there was no way to put them out, or stop the fires from jumping from building to building.
A few cities tried using wildfire techniques to stop the fires. Creating fire breaks to reduce or eliminate fuels for the fires is a good idea in sagebrush, but does not work well in cities. This panicked reaction became worse than the fires. Cities were trying to destroy buildings so fast that they did not have time to fully clear them. And ultimately it was useless as the arsonists just set more fires.
America was starving, fighting, and thirsty. The greatest country in the world became hell on earth. All because of many over reactions by governments to viruses with a death rate of less than 1%.