Oops, that's not the number of these I've written. No, really. It just seems like it. But 771,214 is the number of covid 19 cases reported - aka tested - in this country this morning. Since people are now dying about every 23 seconds, I'm sure every number recorded anywhere is already obsolete.
Oh, not to be misleading, that every 23 seconds rate is worldwide, I believe. I know we're #1, but maybe not that good at killing off our own people. Not yet. Then again, I could be wrong. Though if I am, maybe by the time you read this, it'll be accurate.
Do I sound a bit pessimistic? Testing is still just a farce. And hideously expensive, it's reported. Clusters are becoming more widely reported all through the country. They cluster in meat packing plants for some reason. (Yeah, like terrible conditions and profit grubbing owners.) They haunt jails and prisons. Who needs a shiv now? They're ignored in ICE cages. They run rampant through nursing homes, perhaps because there's an attitude out there - now here's where I'm REALLY pessimistic - that all those old folks are supposed to die anyway, and why should (______ fill in the blank) have to keep paying for their care, particularly out of (_________ 's ) taxes. It's "just culling the herd," leaving the strong, healthy, and rich folk to enjoy the world.
But it's not. Other folks are also dying. Young people. Healthy people. First responders. Doctors. Nurses. Children. A week ago on a website which compiles statistics throughout the world, before they quit posting a percentage number of those who died compared to the number of cases, it stood at 7%. Another site compares active cases (97% mild, 3% critical), and one might think the virus is not all that severe, unless you remember that most cases start mild, then progress, and the vast majority of active cases are relatively new along their journey, thanks to the miracle of exponential growth. It's like compound interest. This same site also compares cases that have had a resolution. Of those, 80% have recovered. They're over it. Done. Able to go on with their lives. That leaves 20% who are just simply done. Passed. Transitioned. Gone to "something better". Singing with the Angels. D. E. A. D.
Twenty percent.
One in five.
No doubt that number, like all numbers in this pandemic, will change by the time it's "over." More cases that were never tested will be added to the rolls, particularly once antibody testing is established so we know who was asymptomatic. More recognized cases will progress to resolution. No doubt investigative journalists will be out "after", digging through the cover-ups, figuring out who never got tested before they died and can merely be presumed to have had the virus but got listed as "heart failure", "embolism", "pneumonia", "natural causes." We may have a better idea of the truth in a few years.
Then there will be the arguments about how many of those can be counted who died because hospitals were overloaded and they couldn't get treatment for a heart attack, or they had a car accident because of the idiots who think now they can go 95 in a 45 zone with predictable results, or any of the other ancillary casualties.
So yeah, I'm pessimistic.
I'm even more so because of all the idiots out there. Take the idiots who jumped on a medicine for malaria and lupus, just because Trump had a "hunch" it might work, not caring to know that Trump also holds major shares (still rising) in Sanofi, the company which produces it, nor caring that we spent however many obscene millions of acquiring a huge supply of those pills, now known to produce worse outcomes when combined with standard treatment than when patients only had standard treatment. That money could instead have been spent on PPE for those caring for the sick. Or testing chemicals and swabs. Meanwhile those suffering with malaria and lupus are... suffering. They can't find the medications they need. Some will needlessly die.
Those idiots don't care. They're not the only idiots either.
You know, like the Floridiots who crowd the beaches, the Georgia idiots who'll be crowding the hair and nail salons, the Trumpidiots who fall for all the stupid nonsense out there about their "liberties" and go protest about opening up the economy again because they think their life isn't complete without a haircut so they can sit down in a crowded restaurant and not be shamed by wearing last season's clothes. They somehow believe if they wield "Liberty" as their magic talisman, then they will be immune, or if they get sick, it'll be mild with no lasting effects and won't take away ventilators from other patients, or even if it does, they won't share it with anybody else, because... uh... because... magic?
None of them seem to have read far enough to realize or care that the "liberty" they all claim for themselves comes right in the middle of a threesome. It's followed by "pursuit of happiness," which is important but properly last. But first of all, most important of all, that which neither of the others can exist without, is "LIFE!" Just don't try to argue that point with the lieutenant governor of Texas. He's the very epitome of a Texidiot, publicly claiming there are more important things than life as he pushed to reopen their economy.
Yes, that happened.
Hmmm, ya suppose if Texas does reopen, he'll change his tune while he sits back in his splendid protected isolation and watches his constituents start to die off?
If only it worked that way.... That would be truly culling the herd, knocking off the stupid.
Plus their families. Friends. Co-workers. Associates. Checkout clerks. Medical teams. People standing in lines. Folks downwind. Drat!
Hmmm, maybe instead, when they come up with a vaccination, they can inoculate against stupid? You know, 'cause that would be ... MAGIC?
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Oops: correction. Now USA's case count is 829,013.
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