I've been out more in the last 10 days than the previous nine weeks combined I think...grocery store, feed store, recycling drop off, a trip to San Antonio to look at houses, a trip to El Campo for yoga, trips to Boling for corn and fresh fish and shrimp and watermelon at the four way stop (spring garden crops coming in), a trip to Rosenberg to look at houses and the liquor store and the shoe store for a pick up; always wearing a mask and trying to be quick so as to limit my time in enclosed spaces. People are more or less observing social distancing but fewer and fewer are wearing masks and I've seen more than one pulled down below the nose (why bother in that case). People are getting complacent. Even me I guess.
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The US is poised to reach 100,000 deaths this holiday weekend. The New York Times front page Saturday was a listing of 1% of deaths from covid-19, 1,000 names with their age and some piece of information about who they were, that they were people that loved and were loved, not just a statistic. A sample lifted from Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter from yesterday:
“Stanley L. Morse, 88, Stark County, Ohio, trombonist who once turned down an offer to join Duke Ellington’s orchestra;” “Jose Diaz-Ayala, 38, Palm Beach, Fla., served with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office for 14 years;” “Louvenia Henderson, 44, Tonawanda, N.Y., proud single mother of three;” “Ruth Skapinok, 85, Roseville, Calif., backyard birds were known to eat from her hand.” “Richard Passman, 94, Silver Spring, Md., rocket engineer in the early days of supersonic flight.”
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Two more known cases in my county. We're up to 44, no deaths.
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Trump has shrugged off the whole pandemic thing and gone golfing this weekend. He's losing supporters and he knows it so his response is to demand, command, states to open churches to services in an attempt to boost his base. Apparently he doesn't understand that exposing them to covid-19 and possibly death isn't really the best way to go about that and apparently the evangelicals don't get it either. Something else he doesn't understand is that he doesn't have the power to force states to do so, neither do the states. If a church feels that opening back up for worship services isn't a good idea, they won't.
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This isn't pandemic related but Trump is continuing his attack on the checks and balances built into the constitution by the founders by continuing to fire inspectors general, especially those who are/were engaged in investigations of wrongdoing by his supporters and appointees. Also Trump is withdrawing the US from the Open Skies treaty and wants to start nuclear bomb testing again.
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Trump is threatening to punish democratic run states that have sent out mail-in ballot applications but not the four or five republican run states that are doing the same thing. He continues to insist that voting by mail is subject to massive fraud even when there is no proof of such.
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Current US statistics as of today 5/24/20, 23:55 GMT (last nine weeks' totals in parenthesis): cases – 1,685,367 (1,512,267, 1,384,681, 1,168985, 976,403, 741,230, 534,494, 312,223, 123,958, 38,757); deaths – 99,286 (90,206, 81,724, 67,954, 54,965, 39,103, 20,637, 8,483, 2,231, 400); (no longer care about recoveries).
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Nearly 100,000 dead Americans (and likely higher since deaths at home of untested people and nursing home deaths of untested people are not counted) has not stopped people from flocking to beaches, boardwalks, lakes, pools, bars this holiday weekend. Shades of 1918.
Another massive storm is headed your way. Lots of rain and thunder. Be careful.
ReplyDeleteThe demand to open churches is pandering for the vote of the religious right. They are lemmings after all, aren't they?
ReplyDeleteEven the Bible tells people to pray in private but today's Christians seem to have a need to do it in mega churches and the more mega the better. If they weren't out in the community infecting others I wouldn't care but...
ReplyDeleteLily says that she could tell that churches were open again because the after-church crowd came into Publix in force yesterday and THEY WERE NOT WEARING MASKS. Of course.
I say let Trump have as many rallies as he likes, and that should take care of the whole problem.
ReplyDeleteHe is a nightmare for us all and I am so hoping there will be trials and tribulations for him next year.
ReplyDeleteIt's just astounding to me that NOTHING has changed, the virus continues to circulate and these people are acting like it's over. Tucson has much less wearing of masks than a month ago. I can't remember if I left a comment about your sister's new house, but if I didn't I wanted to say it's just lovely. It's a good floor plan and I hope she's going to be very happy in it.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about churches is interesting -- I think maybe that's the key to Trump's order. He knows he doesn't really have the power to reopen churches, but his order is a cheap way to gain ground with evangelicals. Now, if churches DO reopen and people get sick, he can just say, "Well, the authority to reopen rested with them. How can I be expected to know that people in their community were still sick and able to spread the disease? It's THEIR fault!"
ReplyDeleteThere is a meme out there on the interwebs, a drawing of a male face wearing a mask and the nose sticking out which is followed by a drawing of a man's lower abdomen wearing pants and his you know what sticking out.
ReplyDeleteBoy our church is definitely treading cautiously - we MIGHT meet next week, but it will be outside, with masks, and probably our most vulnerable folks won't come at all (at least I hope not). I'm conflicted because we won't be able to do my very favorite part of church for a while - if ever again- singing. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of singing, you know that I used to go to the nursing home to sing with my dad & aunts before their Sunday School. Our county has 5 deaths & I think that 3 or 4 of them are from that very nursing home. Of course, we don't know the names of those who died, but it might possibly be some of our regulars. Also very sad.