And some of our men just in from the border say/there are no barbarians any longer.//Now what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?/Those people were a kind of solution.
-C.P. Cavafy
Xenotrope, def.- a genetically transmitted virus that cannot replicate in the host species but which can infect and only replicate in the cells of a different species.
It was an unwelcome visitor, a zoonotic migrant, a trans-species fence jumper, an uninvited guest. From near or from far, riding or walking, in company or alone. They say such a threat brings us together, makes us forget petty differences, reminds us we are all Americans, reminds foreigners that bad things happen here too. I’ve received expressions of concern from Sudan, Somaliland, Istanbul, and Arequipa. After it is over, will we be back to as we were? What will happen to us without a virus nearing our border, landing on our shores, fully among us? Covid-19 has become a kind of solution to an American problem that even people in Omdurman and Hargeisa can see.