Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Monday, May 4th, 2020

Wind

Another downpour this night and a fire engine on our road in the middle of the night. Not sure what that was all about.

The morning is clear and bright, as if the rain has washed all worries away and the early morning light is splendid once again; making my first call at 6:30am so much more pleasant.

Tried to spend some time working from the garden, which continues to be so pretty with now the Rhododendron in full bloom, and while it was nice and warm in the sun, the persistent wind turned out to be a major nuisance. I cannot recall a spring as windy as this in DC.

We went for a brisk after lunch walk so EM could capture more pictures for her “social distancing sculpture” which is due tonight. Due to my afternoon schedule we only had twenty minutes, so it was a bit rushed. We made up for it with a second walk late in the afternoon. It was beautiful out, with the wind having abated and the sun just lovely, a perfect spring day.

Today’s winds have caused the death of yet another tree in the Hood; just around the corner from our house. It almost looks like the tree split in half and one half decided to live, while the other seems to have committed suicide, taking down two cars in the process. The revenge of nature?

Despite the beautiful weather not many people were out today, so photo opportunities were limited.

The world today reports 3.58 million infections. Numbers in the USA have gone up by 21k, while that is still significant, it is less (2% per day) than last week (4% per day on average). This is good news.

As the US reopens scientist predict a steep increase in infected and related death, with new cases reaching 200k per day and 3000 deaths per day. Now that is a scary outlook and would mean that the way we live in States not reopening shall get more of the same for longer.

Meanwhile Europeans are mulling over the creation of immunity passports and databases. While on one level this seems like a good idea (especially if one is 100% sure to have had the virus), on another level this may well open the doors to health based discrimination. May this not potentially be extended to broader health certificates than just a clean bill for COVID-19, but potentially also many more diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, flu, etc.? Once such a “passport” exists employers may demand access and those that do not comply to sharing such data would be assumed to have health conditions to hide. Some of the more critical questions are discussed here, albeit related to Corona only, not the possible wider implications. 

May the force be with you!

Comments

05.05.2020 15:31

Patrick