Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Tuesday, August 25th, 2020

Pesky Flies

Today we headed to Herring Point beach in the Cape Henlopen State Park. A beach I normally very much like for its surf. We were again rather early and not many beach goers had yet arrived, so it was easy to find a nice space, far from everyone else. Basking in the sun was pleasant and EM even conceded to join me for a walk. We gave up after about 500 meters as the sand was rather soggy not making for pleasant walking. We opted for a swim instead. The waves were big and breaking almost at the shoreline, limiting body surfing. Also, the current was quite strong. Nonetheless, we played for close to an hour I guess before heading back to our spot, looking forward to reading a book in the shade of our umbrella, where we did not last terribly long as we were under constant attack by pesky little flies going after sweat and salt and in the process biting us, basically causing us to flee the venue.

By 12:30 we were back at the house; chilling for a bit before heading out to grab lunch at a restaurant next to the Lewes-Cape May ferry. Everyone was wearing masks. All outside tables were more than six feet apart and there was a lovely breeze on the deck. All in all, we felt very comfortable with the setting and I opted for a lobster roll (though I skipped most of the roll, focusing on the lobster instead), a salad on the side and some truffle fries. The latter were amazing as the potatoes were not only hand cut, but very thinly sliced, almost like crisps. I will of course copy that one day.

To digest our meal, we headed back to the State Park, but a different section, hoping to be able to avoid the flies. The tide was going out so there was almost no swell and I mainly floated around in the water – not much exercising there. While it was better, there were still flies on the beach despite a strong breeze. It seems that if the wind is off-shore it carries the little buggers all the way down to the shore. This is a little bit frustrating as the wind direction is not due to change tomorrow. We will presumably follow the same routine, go to the beach early, mostly play in the water, dry of a little and head back home over midday. This will definitely benefit my face, which is a little burned, despite ample use of zinc oxide while in the water. Somehow it keeps washing off.

With this schedule we should be home in time for EM to take her interview for a job as lifeguard at the YMCA in BCC as well as to welcome our friends who are to arrive tomorrow morning to spend the rest of the week with us. Lunch/ dinner plans tomorrow are bacon-cheese-burgers and a salad. And I am hoping for another afternoon trip to the beach, maybe Lewes main beach again, given that it will be low tide.

I found an interesting background story on the discovery of the virus genome, reads like the Chinese were pretty transparent, even if not officially. The Virologist who was send the samples reported the genome to a US database as early as January 5th, 2020 and then gave permission to an Australian scientist to publish it on January 1tth, 2020. This was not risk free for the Chinese doctor as the publication had not been sanctioned by Chinese authorities, but in the end did make them look good, so nothing happened to Dr Ziang. I trust China more than the USA in anything COVID-19 related.

Worldwide 23.7 million have been infected of which 5.95 million are in the USA. Daily new infections in the USA have slowed from 77k to currently ~35k day to day.

With the virus still spreading, albeit a little slower, yet again the moron in chief is providing medical advice and pitching a supposed treatment advertised by one of his main sponsors (the M.r Pillow guy). The plant the extract is derived from, oleander, is poisonous and there is no proof the compound is either safe or effective to treat or prevent Covid-19, experts say. While plants which maybe deadly in one form have long been used to cure illnesses in a modified form, rarely has this been the case without the necessary vigilance. This latest medical advice comes after the moron in chief suggested people inject bleach and expose themselves to UV light, then advocated a drug for treatment which has later proven to be harmful, then pushed for a cure not proven to actually be one as yet (recovery plasma). With this track record, any vaccine approved by this current administration is likely as useless as the treatments being heralded, if not outright harmful. I for one will stay away from it. In particular when reading that Dr Anthony Fauci warns against rushing out a vaccine . As we know the administration does not listen to expert advice, so no matter how dire the warnings, I am certain if they could, they would, approve a vaccine for broad use even before it is proven to be effective and harmless. The only hope is the producer’s reputation.They should be very weary of aligning with this administration, as it could well impact their credibility and if the vaccine is licensed early in the US and then proves ineffective. This would not only be damaging for that companies reputation, but also sow mistrust in any other vaccines.

While the USA is celebrating sinking case numbers as measures taken in Texas and Florida seem to be successful, such celebrations may well be premature as now the virus is moving into America’s heartland, the Midwest where many Virus deniers reside and States are unprepared. Here comes the next wave.

Sadly cases have been on the rise in my home country also. Fortunately, they seem to be getting the spikes under control. Reading  about the quarantine process with great interest as this is what we will need to go through if we go home for Christmas, five days with negative test seems manageable.

Seriously, a cruise? The last thing I would want to do is lock myself upon a boat with thousands of others, not that I would want to do that without the virus, but with the virus? Yikes