Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

As I read reports of the national supply chain dwindling and Trump ending federal support of remote testing locations on Friday, I fear for the future. Any optimism for returning to normalcy in the coming months stands on a four-pillar foundation, according to this:
1) Robust hospital capacity, which includes PPE;
2) Broad testing;
3) Rapid investigation of new confirmed cases and isolation of the infected;
4) Sustained reduction in new cases.

Trump appears intent on undercutting at least two of these, but it's just wrong, we are scolded, to question a footbawwwwl coach's claims that the end of this plague is near.
Desire alone will not end this thing. And even the will to end it seems in shorter supply than masks in some corners of the right. We are all imperiled when people with a TV audience in the millions say things like, "Yeah, but they're old. They're gonna die soon anyway." Or "It's a ghoulish sin to cling to the desire to live when eternal life in Jesus is the most important thing in this world."
They can have their religious beliefs, but when the expression of those beliefs cheapens life, it's reasonable to push back.

 

Death totals by the last couple days

Monday 10,908
Tuesday 12,893
Wednesday 14,768

How long before that gets to 3,000 per day?

 

I just saw a story (which I won’t link to because it’s undeserving of clicks) about how some people are upset that Amazon and some third-party vendors are still selling and shipping products that some people find not worthy to sell or ship because some people deem those products “non-essential.”

I gotta be honest with you: people who have been cooped up with a handful of other people for 3 weeks due to the virus lockdown and are facing another 6 to 8 weeks of being cooped up with those same other people may find that something other than toilet paper and hand sanitizer — things like board games, novels, video games, musical instruments, D&D supplies (hell, I dunno, maybe even B&D supplies) — are just as essential as TP and hand sanitizer. Maybe more essential. And I ain’t gonna judge those desperate cooped-up people nearly as harshly as I’m gonna judge some people who are apparently not able to let other people enjoy themselves.

 

Shot


Chaser

 

sad sinophobe trombone

Most New York Coronavirus Cases Came From Europe, Genomes Show

New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that travelers brought in the virus mainly from Europe, not Asia.

“The majority is clearly European,” said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-wrote a study awaiting peer review.


If only we'd had some testing in place.

 

Back when life was normal (Normal? What's that?!?!) I was cooped up trying to breathe and feeling like a freak about it. Pollen is our state bird.* Staying in is now to keep from scaring people. On second thought, maybe I should get out my Godzilla suit and just stomp all over the neighborhood and cough.

Oh my goodness. Just stop. Someone got on their high horse about that where eBay is concerned, too. I have an 80-year-old in the house whose happy place is mowing the lawn. If people want to get on the phone and tell her the plot to "Larkrise to Candleford" when she can't go outside, be my guest.





*No, it's not. It's construction cranes or, no, I think it's Keith Urban.

 

This is incredible. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

 

Some people really need to see this, but they are probably too stupid or stubborn to learn from it.

 

That's a play on the old joke about the guy on the roof during the flood turning away rescuers because God will save him. And then when he gets to heaven, God says "you idiot, I sent firefighters, a Coast Guard boat and a National Guard helicopter to rescue you!"

 

Daily idiot celeb post. Maybe she can beat up the virus in a bar fight

 

I know. The cartoon was posted on a Facebook group for fans of The West Wing. A version of the joke was told on the show.

It is a particularly big issue in New York and the surrounding area. The Hasidic Jewish community has been particularly awful in failing to practice social distancing. There was a huge funeral in the city for a rabbi who died from COVID-19. As recently as last week, they were still sending children to private school. I mentioned this before. They were telling the children to lie down in their seats so no one would try to stop them. They put a sign that read "food bus" on the side of the vehicle.

You've got people with a history of not giving a damn about the people outside their little community and screaming about attacks religious freedom and anti-semitism if anybody dares to tell them to follow the same rules as everybody else. One of these communities is close enough to me that we shop at some of the same stores. They also put us at risk by overloading local hospitals and eating up medical supplies. They are confounding efforts to flatten the curve. Their selfishness is putting everybody at risk and they don't care. It is extremely frustrating.

 

Shaking in my boots, I'm telling you.