Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Thursday, August 27th, 2020

Silent

Another beautiful day for the beach! And of we went again, though there was very little surf. Since there is a Zoom meeting for IB parents tonight my idea of heading back to the beach for a sundowner will not materialize – maybe tomorrow which is our last full day here.

All four of us headed to the same spot we occupied yesterday. The girls packed up after about two hours while Danielle and I stayed. It was super windy, so no pesky flies, but also flying sun umbrellas. Ultimately we “cemented” them into the sand by pouring sea water into the hole and onto the sand we used to dig the umbrellas into. That mostly did the trick. Nonetheless, by 14:00 I felt I had had enough sun, especially with the wind burning my skin. Danielle was still on a call and of course EM was late coming back.

I ended up packing everything up and schlepping half the stuff pack to the parking lot, where to my pleasure I found a sweet water faucet so quickly rinsed the salt and the sand of before hunkering down to wait for the arrival of my car. Of course, she did not notice me standing near the wash rooms and made for the beach, just to find our spot deserted, safe for the packed up umbrella. Danielle, who had just finished her call briefed her that I was at the car park. Since the last time she was late I yelled at her which led to tears, I just got into the car while she was looking for me on the beach and gave her the silent treatment upon her return. I think that made her feel worse than me yelling. No word was said about her being half an hour late. Given this is supposed to be nice for everyone, I am not upset about the girls not being as enthusiastic about the beach as us adults are, but I do expect agreements to be kept.

Turns out she finished math and then spoke to her father; the latter she could have done in the car or postponed until after she got me, it is about learning to manage time. My late father used to say punctuality is the politeness of kings. I will give it to her that she announced she would be late.

Anyway, back at the house we showered changed and then made for Lewes, which has a cute little coffee shop selling the most extravagant coffee. I bought eight pounds from all over the world to take back home. Danielle treated all of us to ice cream and all is good now. Dinner is ready, but people are on calls, so it will have to wait a little while longer.

Other than the hideous RNC a lot is going on in the world today. Mostly related to hurricane Laura and protests in Kenosha. Admittedly, when I first read of the shooting of two protestors in Kenosha I had speculated hey were shot by a white guy, and here now are the police findings: protestors killed by a white supremacist, only 17 years of age, considering himself part of the militia  This is the result of US gun policy, everyone can now decide to be the police and take action to “protect” whatever it is. Despite the white armed militias being in violation of curfews, police provide them with water and encourage them. Soon everyone with a gun will think they can enforce the law, obviously without quite knowing what that is.

Unless of course if you are black, in which case it is perfectly fine for police to break into your house by ramming in the door. If then the person sleeping in bed grabs a licensed fire arm and shoots low at the door, then of course it is not fine. Then the police fire rounds and rounds of bullets to kill all those in said bed and no one is arrested or charged. Sounds like fiction? It is not, it is precisely what happen to Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend three months ago and no arrests for these killings have been made. This is such a scary country.

At least sports stars are now taking action, they are just boycotting the season and refuse to play games until something is done about black lives!

Yesterday I wrote about changes to CDC testing guidelines. It appears the administration’s top infectious disease expert, Dr Fauci, was not part of the rewriting of these guidelines. So this is all about politics, no testing, no cases, no more Virus. This is recklessness from an administration at its best. To be clear if a symptomatic people cannot be identified, the virus spread cannot be stopped and infections will increase, as Will death. The USA accounts for 4% of the world population, but, and this is the richest nation in the world, for 25% of all COVID-19 related death. How can this be? Is medical care so poor? Are Americans less healthy than other people? Or is it because 25% of all known cases worldwide happen to be in the USA? China has had a total of -86k infected to date. The USA has 6 million with about a quarter of China’s population. Should that not give politicians something to think about? Or at least the people voting for the clowns calling themselves the administration? It is really basic math, but it seems 40-45% of the American people are not able to do this. It feels like a Turkey selecting Thanksgiving to be its favorite holiday.

As the health community decries the new guidelines CDC seems to be back tracking to save at least some of its reputation. 

Amid a continuous increase in reported infections (6 million in the USA and 24 million worldwide today), despite testing decreasing in the US from over a million a day to 700k a day, Moderna has made another announcement regarding the safety and efficacy of its vaccine, releasing data from a phase 1 trial, where the vaccine was adminstered to whooping ten candidates, where it proved safe if given in two doses administered 28 days apart. Results have not yet been peer reviewed and phase 3 trials have yet to start. At least the company has signed up 15,000 volunteers for these trials (compared to 50,000 for thevaccinedeveloped by Oxford University). Nonetheless, I would not be surprised if on the basis of these phase 1 trails the administration were to push the FDA to license the Moderna vaccine for emergency use in the coming weeks. Just so the administration can declare victory on the battle with the Virus in time for the elections. And sadly, people here are uninformed or stupid enough to believe this. 

Lastly, I found an encouraging to read about artists reinventing their industry, in this case live music to sustain themselves and venues. The world is increasingly moving online.