Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Friday, June 12th, 2020

On the Water

What a wonderful morning to wake up to. Sunny and cool with a light breeze. Given I was utterly exhausted last night – no idea from what – and headed to bed at 21:00, I was up at 6:00 this morning, which gave me ample time to browse the news before starting on my work day at 8:00 and I did get my exercise in today as well. So happy.

Overall, a pleasant mostly uneventful day, like most days in this day and age. The highlight of our day was our now almost weekly sailing outing. It was warm and gorgeous, just not enough wind. As a result, we did not make it back to port by 18:30 and probably, if left to fend for ourselves, would not have reached it before midnight as the wind died on us completely. Embarrassingly Chip had to come and tow us in (at least all other boats had to be towed as well). Nonetheless, a few hours on the water are like little holiday always and make for a nice break.

In the afternoon I went to pick up the yard signs I have order for the Hood. I was worried they would not fit into the car; they did as they came neatly parceled up. It was lovely to have neighbors dropping by throughout the afternoon to pick them up. Currently I still have 11 signs which have neither been paid for nor collected, so have send a shaming email to all. Let’s see what will happen.

I have managed to get EM to eat creative salads. Today was watermelon with Feta cheese and prosciutto. We will continue on the light cuisine to combat the pounds. In the same spirit we have an adventure planned for tomorrow, making our way to a national park which supposedly has life guard free swimming.

The virus continues to define our life. We still shop only every 10 days or so, with yesterday being one of those special days when I had an outing to Trader Joes on Wisconsin Avenue. Apparently an illegal act, as I bought wine in DC and transported it to Maryland. I also picked up groceries for salads for the next ten days, so I do not feel quite so bad.

Today the world knows of 7.26 million cases of which 2.09 million are in the US. What makes me sad, is that exactly what I had feared may happen is coming to pass: the early reopening has resulted in the virus not being sufficiently contained and infections are now increasing again. After two months of a virtual standstill there is no appetite for a repeat. Had States resisted reopening for another four weeks, there might have been a chance to manage the spread like Germany or New York seems to be able do, and keep infections to a small and controllable level. Now, all of us in the USA are in danger as of course, it is not possible to contain to the current hotspot States of Arizona, Florida, Texas and Utah. At least Utah seems to reconsider reopening given a 126% increase in infections.

Overall though it appears the Virus is set to win as people in the USA are fatigued with lock downs and taking care. To contain the spread a longer term lifestyle change would be required and people do not seem to want to go there, given the discussions around mask wearing for instance.

There is further evidence that another lock down or stay home order is unlikely to work as States suggest reopening despite significant spike sim new cases “is about livelihoods”. I cannot help but wonder who will benefit from “livelihoods” if people die of the virus. Models predict 133k dead by October 1. At the current rate, of 1.000 per day that mark will be reached by mid July at the latest.

CDC is assuming to have a vaccine by late fall. That would be incredible. Hopefully there will be no pressure to release something unsafe to help the Orange Cheeto win the election. This article very openly talks about the “October surprise” with the WH promoting a vaccine that may or may not be effective or could even be harmful like it did with the drug Hydrochloroquine, putting immense pressure on the FDA to allow its use. And with Moderna in the lead on development, conducting human trials in parallel to animal tests, a stock holding former Moderna executive in charge of vaccine development, all is set for making this a poltiical issue rather than a health ploy.

On drug development I am appalled reading about a potential drug developed with tax payer money now used to enrich various companies. This is just unethical on every level. 

Like in the US the UK reports a correlation between Corona mortality and poverty. The poorer, the more likely to die. This does not bode well for poor countries or countries with high poverty levels such as India. Also, it would be interesting to see if there is a correlation between pro Brexit and death by Corona. My suspicion is ”yes”; Brits voting pro Brexit typically were in economically challenged regions of the country.

I loved this piece: When COVID brings out the artist.... this lady created beautiful outfits from paper bags while in quarantine

Moving on form Corona to the other dominating topic - the protests against police brutality: I came across this long, but excellent article on the history and origin of ongoing protests and why Minneapolis was just the final straw.

Our summer plans look increasingly unrealistic. As expected, Americans or anyone coming from the USA is distinctly undesirable in Europe. While it makes me sad, I can absolutely understand that no one in Europe has an appetite for importing the virus and America is a shot show when it comes to virus management.

Who knows when I will meet my family again. A