â…as many people as possible wear a nonmedical or homemade mask when leaving their homes.â
This week in Mercer PA, a protest against the Pennsylvania governorâs stay at home restrictions yielded this sign:
If this woman thinks wearing a mask is slavery, then she has no idea what slavery is. She, (along with the rest of us) arenât permitted to drive on the wrong side of the road, either. This isnât the time for people who are asked to stay at home and to wear a mask when outside to sing: âNobody knows the trouble I seeâ.
Speaking of masks and rules, how about Mike Pence:
Why didnât the Mayo Clinic say: “Thank you for visiting us, Mr. Vice President, but I’m afraid you can’t enter the clinic without a mask per our policy.” Mayo may do fantastic work, but they failed utterly by letting Pence go in unmasked.
Will Mitch pass aid to the states?
Where Wrongo lives, the nurses, fire fighters, police, and town workers are preponderantly Republican voters. Have they been screwed enough to realize theyâve been voting AGAINST their own self interests?
Biden canât run from this, no matter how many Dems hope he can:
Even the cows know opening meat processing plants without PPE is wrong:
Weâre entering a different kind of graduation season:
Remember when we had fifteen COVID-19 cases, and they were just going to be gone, like a miracle?
If you ask Trump, that’s where we are, plus a few orders of magnitude. All of the recent happy talk about reaching or being past the peak have omitted the detail that so far, “flattening the curve” isnât substantially reducing the number of cases, or deaths.
The theory was that once we âflattened the curveâ, we could ease up on social isolation, mask-wearing and get back to work. When we think about the downside of the curve, we think bell curves, with a sharp rise and fall from a high peak. As Wrongo said on April 20, that was unlikely to be the outcome, because it didnât happen like that in countries that started fighting the virus long before us. And thatâs how it seems to be working out. Here is where we are:
The chart tracks a 3-day average of cases, since that smooths out some of the big day-to-day variances. As of April 29, it seemed clear that we have reached a peak, but weâre not showing any real signs of a rapid decline. This means the COVID-19 curve could remain elevated for a long time.
And we should remember that 878,839 cases are still active.
Politicians are obsessed with âthe peak.â Are we at it? Are we past it? When will it come? Has it come? Now theyâve turned to communicating their plans for reopening the economy. That makes sense. Re-opening is becoming urgent, with more than 30 million Americans out of work, but it’s dismissive for politicians to say we’re past the worst of it “medically” while more people go to the ICU every day.
âBaker focused on hospitalizations and ICU admissions, saying, weâve basically been flat for 12 days. Weâre flat at a high level. But 12 days, 13 days counting today — youâre not going to find a lot of other places that just sit like this for 13 days.â
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb MD, an advisor to Baker, tweeted:
IHME (mentioned in the tweet) is a closely watched model from the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
What we do over the next few weeks will determine whether we get this right, or whether COVID remains a large ongoing threat. We need to understand the potential risks that come with a decision to reopen, and make plans to mitigate these risks as best we can. Some states, like Connecticut, are planning carefully.
If we look state by state, in about half of the country, the numbers of cases are still rising. In about another third of the country, there is a leveling off. Only in a minority of states are the numbers actually coming down on a daily basis. New York, Washington, Louisiana and Idaho have had reductions of more than 50% from their peaks in new infections.
According to STAT, there are several possible outcomes: Recurring small outbreaks, a monster wave of cases, or a persistent crisis. And no one knows which outcome is most likely. We should expect new infections to start rising again in states without much testing, but with large populations that opened early like Texas, Florida and Georgia.
We should also realize that in some states, cooking the books about new cases and deaths will happen. Newsweek reported data compiled by Florida medical examiners was no longer being reported by the state government. The official state data has not been updated in over a week.
Acting like weâre flattening the curve when we really donât know if we are, is likely to create a San Andreas-sized political earthquake if cases spike again.
But letâs try to get past all this, because itâs time for another Saturday Soother, when we stop checking Twitter, and think about spring.
Here on the fields of Wrong, the pear, plum and cherry trees have flowered, while the crab apples are soon to bloom. We have bluebirds nesting in both bluebird houses. Our weather remains cold and wet, so stay indoors and brew up a hot mug of Bengal Spice tea.
Now grab a socially distant chair and have a few minutes of fun with a song parody by the Opera Guy, Matthew Ciuffitelli. Hereâs his parody of âPhantom of the Operaâ, called âPhantom of the Quarantineâ. Wrongo promises you wonât be disappointed:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Early snow at Schwabacher Landing, Grand Teton NP, WY â October 2019 photo by travlonghorns
The shit show visited on America by Republican nihilists must end. Here are three of the latest examples.
First, Bloomberg reports that Trump says he wonât allow federal aid for states facing budget deficits caused by the Coronavirus unless they take action against their sanctuary cities: (brackets by Wrongo)
âWe would want certain things…as part of a deal with House Democrats to aid states, [Trump] he said at a White House event on Tuesday…including sanctuary city adjustments, because we have so many people in sanctuary cities.â
Yes, Trump wants to hold Democratic states and cities hostage unless they end their sanctuary designations. He has previously tried to cut off their federal funding unless they change their pro-immigrant policies, and he thinks now he has some leverage.
Second, Mitch McConnell and industry lobbying groups want to make immunity from COVID-19 lawsuits a condition for state aid. In a Monday interview on Fox News Radio, McConnell said he considers liability protections for companies a non-negotiable demand for the next coronavirus stimulus legislation:
 âThatâs going to be my red line….Trial lawyers are sharpening their pencils to come after healthcare providers and businesses, arguing that somehow the decision they made with regard to reopening adversely affected the health of someone else.â
McConnell is arguing that companies should have the right to be negligent, and suffer no consequences for negligence that kills their staff.
As some states begin opening their economies, lobbyists say retailers, manufacturers, restaurants and other businesses struggling to start back up need temporary limits on legal liability. The lobbyists want to give companies more protection against lawsuits by customers or employees who contract the virus and accuse the business of being the source of the infection.
Think about this: Workmenâs compensation takes care of what might happen to an employee, and does so at ridiculously low rates, even for death benefits. So this means that the primary corporate liability issue is over employees who bring the virus home from work and infect family members. Under the new legislation, family members would be precluded from filing a suit against the employer.
What about corporate liability for retail customers? Would retailers be held harmless if people getting sick are traceable to their store? There is a tension between companies having confidence to reopen, and employees and customers having confidence that they will be protected from unsafe practices that raise their chance of infection.
Lobbyists and Republicans want permanent changes to the business liability laws, while Trump is looking at how they could create some of those shields either via regulation, or executive order. But McConnell wants permanent legislation. His leverage is to make it a part of the next stimulus package.
“If you’re an employer and you offer to bring your employee back to work and they decide not to, that’s a voluntary quit,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said Friday. “Therefore, they would not be eligible for the unemployment money.”
The only exception for workers getting unemployment after not returning to work is if they are ill with the virus or taking care of a family member who has the disease. The situation is similar for workers in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday gave the go-ahead for retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls to reopen on Friday.
âAccording to the Texas Workforce Commission, to qualify for unemployment benefits in the state, a worker must be âwilling and able to work all the days and hours required for the type of work you are seeking…..employees who choose not to return to work will become ineligible for unemployment benefits.â
The only solution to these anti-worker policies is re-unionization of workers in nearly every industry, and these Republican efforts during the pandemic may energize that unionization.
Mitch wants to protect employers. Trump says the whole problem is Chinaâs fault.
Harvest Moon over Bisti Badlands, south of Farmington, NM – 2019 photo by navidj.
Question: How many Americans have died from COVID-19? A: 54,024 as of Sunday.
Question: How many Americans died in the Vietnam War? A: 58,220.
Barring a miracle, we will pass that Vietnam milestone this week. By then, there will be more than one million confirmed cases, and 60,000 deaths in the US. Can we take a minute, and try to place the Coronavirus in the context of the dead and broken bodies from Vietnam?
Vietnam took ten years to reach that horrible number, while COVID-19 has met it in less than three months. Wrongo served during the Vietnam War. It was a trying time for all Americans. We were disunited at home, at much at war with each other, as with the Viet Cong. It scarred at least a generation, and there are still victims of both the domestic and foreign fights among us.
Todayâs fight against the Coronavirus may become the current generation of 20-somethingâs Vietnam. Jobs wonât come back quickly, friends and family are dying, and the lack of testing and a vaccine will make life scarier for young people than for any other group.
Like Vietnam did to the boomers, Coronavirus could scar young people for years to come.
As we head into month four of the outbreak, we know that we are undercounting deaths. The Economist reported on one aspect of the undercount early in April, comparing cardiac arrest deaths in NYC to the historical average:
Are the increased rate of cardiac arrest deaths really COVID-19 deaths? A strong case can be made that they are. Back to the Economist, who says that the outbreak will be worse in the South: (emphasis and parenthesis by Wrongo)
âPlaces with older residents and more diabetes, heart disease and smoking have higher CFRs (case-to-fatality rates)…..Counties with lots of poor or black people tend to have more health problems, less social distancing and fewer ICU beds. Yet CFRs in such areas are even higher than you would expect from these factors alone.
Together, these variables leave a geographic footprint….the highest death rates will probably…be…in poor, rural parts of the South and Appalachia with high rates of heart disease and diabetes. Worryingly, the three states that announced plans this week to relax their lockdowns (Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina) are all in this region.â
It didn’t have to be like this. Thereâs plenty of blame to go around, but in the end, the single most important factor in Americaâs disaster of a response was the lack of early testing. That will be a greater disaster if we fail to keep growing testing as the lockdowns end.
One thing thatâs difficult to comprehend is the lack of empathy for the dead and their families and friends by some Americans. Most can rouse themselves to celebrate the first responders, health care workers, and âessentialâ workers, but not all can.
âThe president has spoken for more than 28 hours in the 35 briefings held since March 16, eating up 60% of the time that officials spoke….Over the past three weeks, the tally comes to more than 13 hours of Trump â including two hours spent on attacks and 45 minutes praising himself and his administration, but just 4Âœ minutes expressing condolences for coronavirus victims.â
Trump has not even ordered American flags lowered in tribute to the dead, while some governors have. New Jerseyâs Governor Phil Murphy and New Yorkâs Governor Andrew Cuomo both did in April. As Susan B. Glasser said in the New Yorker:
âTrump, who has in the past personally asked for the flags to be lowered after a shooting or a politicianâs death, canât even bring himself to do this much for victims of the coronavirus.â
Time to wake up, America! We must tread carefully for the next few months, because we truly know very little about the virus. For example, thereâs no evidence that Coronavirus antibodies prevent reinfection.
To help you wake up, listen to âRoad to Nowhereâ written by David Byrne for the 1985 Talking Heads album âLittle Creaturesâ. Here, itâs performed in 2012 by David Byrne and St. Vincent, live in Paris with a brass band:
Sample Lyric:
Well, we know where we’re going
But we don’t know where we’ve been
And we know what we’re knowing
But we can’t say what we’ve seen
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
âPresident Trump on Friday threatened to block an emergency loan to shore up the U.S. Postal Service unless it dramatically raised shipping prices on online retailers…âThe Postal Service is a joke,â Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. [In order] To obtain a $10 billion line of credit Congress approved this month, âThe post office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times…â
The USPS is enshrined in the US Constitution. BTW, killing it might accomplish a few things for Trump:
It obstructs any Congressional effort to mandate mail-in voting.
It rewards private sector delivery carriers like FedEx and UPS that compete with the USPS. Many of them have donated both to Trump and Republican candidates.
The USPS is entirely self-funded. If you buy stamps, youâve funded the Post Office. Its operations are profitable. It loses money on paper because of Congressâs unique requirement for the USPS to pre-pay all future pension liabilities, something no other American corporation or institution is required to do. That was imposed by Republicans in 2006 in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.
Heâs trying to make the Postal Service unprofitable. And when itâs a shell of its former self, sell it to UPS or FedEx who would be delighted to have one of their biggest competitors destroyed. On to cartoons.
Our grim future:
MAGA-ites drink the healing Kool aid:
Your lockdown inconveniences my freedumb:
Georgia takes aim at the lockdown:
Nursing homes account for 25% of US COVID-19 deaths. Remember the elderly and infirm:
The oil glut has forced the oil companies into the suburbs:
Wildflowers, Hidden Lake, Glacier NP, WY â August 2019 iPhone photo by anadoptabledog
Wrongo shopped at both Costco and at our local chain supermarket, Big Y in the past two days. Both were out of significant items, and not merely paper products.
A hallmark of American culture is the size of our supermarkets, and the dazzling variety of products available. Anyone who has shopped in foreign countries can attest to the difference, so itâs unsettling to see so many bare shelves.
What exactly is going on here? This is a downstream impact of COVID-19 and how weâre fighting the pandemic. We have a finely tuned supply chain, and the shutdown has upended it. On the demand side, commercial buyers of food, like restaurant chains, and commercial bakeries arenât buying what they bought in pre-COVID times. While consumers are cooking at home, and buying much more than ever before.
On the supply side, there are clear disruptions: Consumer demand for meat has skyrocketed. The WSJ reports:
âUS grocers are struggling to secure meat, looking for new suppliers and selling different cuts, as the coronavirus pandemic cuts into domestic production and raises fears of shortages.â
The Journal quotes Jeff Lyons, SVP at Costco:
âI have not seen beef sales and all protein behave this way since the Atkins Diet days…â
US beef production fell 24% compared with a month earlier, pork fell by 20%, and poultry was down 10%, according to estimates from CoBank, an agricultural lender. And wholesale prices are creeping up:
Aprilâs sharp decline in beef and pork prices reflected the drop in demand after the shutdown closed restaurants, while the spike is due to increasing consumer demand when production is down.
The spread of COVID-19 among US meat plant workers has hurt meat production. Companies are trucking poultry and livestock to be processed at more distant plants that remain open. On some farms, pigs are being euthanized because slaughterhouses have closed. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds dispatched 1,000 National Guard members to help deliver COVID-19 tests to Iowa meat plants so they could get back into operation.
Egg farmers are destroying eggs. Dairy farmers have been dumping thousands of gallons of milk. Some cattle ranchers are sending their herds to early slaughter because the restaurant market is dead: No one is going out for steak & eggs, or a bacon and egg breakfast in a diner. The Hilldescribed more lost food output:
âSome $5 billion of fresh fruits and vegetables have already gone to waste, according to the Produce Marketing Association, an industry trade group.â
We know how the virus outbreaks at food plants hurt meat production, but there are other supply chain problems.
The primary issue is supply chain mismatches caused by the lockdown. In normal times, people get a significant amount of food at restaurants, while many kids eat lunch at school. Our highly specialized supply chains canât adapt easily or quickly to the lockdown reality.
Wholesalers who focused on restaurants do not have the facilities for packaging food in a way people are used to seeing it on shelves, and grocery stores donât have relationships with the wholesale producers. The 50-pound bags of flour that mills sell to large bakeries or restaurants are of little use to people needing a five pound bag for a family of four.
Getting food to grocery shelves is also hampered by delivery people and grocery store workers alike who are increasingly calling out sick, either with Coronavirus, or the fear of getting it.
Finally, weâre seeing increased food insecurity. Before the pandemic began, 37 million Americans were considered food insecure. Since the start of the lockdown, about 25 million people have applied for unemployment. The bigger problem now is that so many people have no cash coming in. Meanwhile, food banks are having trouble supplying enough food to people who need it. In parts of America, that problem is far more acute that food shortages, and itâs unlikely to get better soon.
Sadly, we have millions needing food, when farmers are destroying what to them, is surplus food.
But enough of bad news, youâve had it with a week that saw us hit 50,000 COVID-19 deaths, and Trump grabbing at straws for a Coronavirus cure. Time for our Saturday Soother, a few moments when we forget about Trump, Corona and lockdowns to focus on our breathing, and something a little different.
Today, pull up a socially distant chair and listen to Maude Maggart sing an old standard from the 1930âs, âDeep Purpleâ. Maggart is Fiona Appleâs sister. Pretty talented family:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Wrongo and Ms. Right watched the âOne World Together at Homeâ television concert last Saturday. We stumbled upon it, meaning that wherever it was promoted, it never entered our consciousness. Letâs chalk that up to the distractions abounding in our year of living dangerously.
The two-hour event featured pre-recorded remote performances from Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Lizzo, and Taylor Swift, among many others. If you havenât seen it, the video is available here.
It wasnât originally planned as a fundraiser, but it inspired people across America to donate. Billboard reports that the show was watched by more than 21 million people, and we learned that it raised $127 million for COVID-19 aid.
For Wrongo, there were three highlights of the show. First, the Rolling Stones lip-synching to âYou Canât Always Get What You Wantâ, with Charlie Watts air drumming. He played a cushioned chair as a hi-hat. We definitely needed a pick me up, and unsurprisingly, Charlie was right on time. Mick, Keith and Ronnie were actually playing, and there was a keyboard and drum track, but it all worked.
Second, Lizzo, this generationâs Aretha, sang Sam Cookeâs âA Change Is Gonna Comeâ. Very nice, it was worth the whole show.
Third, Keith Urban performed âHigher Loveâ as a trio, with two digital copies of himself performing. At the end of the tune, Nicole Kidman came out and kissed one of the carbon copies. Like the Rolling Stones, Urbanâs video added levity to an otherwise somber set of performances.
Some down notes: Jennifer Lopez doing a note-for-note cover of Barbara Streisandâs âPeopleâ. And although not noticed by Wrongo, industry pros reported that Lady Gaga sang to the wrong side of a $20k Neumann microphone.
On balance, although the performances rarely were of the quality of the studio or live experience we are used to, it was a nice way to pass a couple of hours. Watching some big names live streaming using (mostly) modest home equipment leaves us with a sense that maybe, there’s not a huge divide between the talent of the anointed few, and the talents of the rest of us.
Since the start of the pandemic, we have been flooded with feel good moments from around the world, many are musically based, and the musical parodies can be fun.
Hereâs one that is a serious reworking of The Bandâs classic tune, âThe Weightâ by Robbie Robertson, remade in 2019 for the 50th anniversary of the song. It features musicians performing together across 5 continents, led by Robertson and Ringo Starr.
It was produced by the charity, Playing For Change. Their focus is to record musicians performing in their natural environments in a series called âSongs Around the Worldâ. They also have a nonprofit that builds music and art schools for children internationally.
The musicians performing on âThe Weightâ are incredible, but whoever mixed and edited it deserves a Grammy. The changes in vocalists and instrumentation feels natural and seamless. The sound is always balanced, and the editor also gives each musician a sufficient share of the limelight. We also meet some amazing artists many of whom were unknown, at least to Wrongo.
In these days of social distancing, this shows that distance can be a state of mind. Take a load off and turn it up. Trust Wrongo, you won’t be dissapointed:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
When it comes to ending the lockdown, the theory is that once weâve âflattened the curveâ we can ease up on social isolation, mask-wearing and get back to work. The problem is that when we think about the downside of the curve, we think parabolas. This chart demonstrates that even with the âflatteningâ, weâve been told to expect a sharp drop-off in cases:
âThe dying wonât be over nearly as soon as it [a curve like that] suggests.â
OâNeil looked at the curves for Italy and Spain. Both had uncontrolled outbreaks and climbed the curve about two weeks ahead of the US. They also turned to lockdowns late, leading to overburdened hospitals. So, they offer a decent indication of what to expect in in America:
 âTheir curves…are not symmetric curves. They go up fast, flatten out and then descend slowly. How slowly? Itâs still hard to tell, but the shape strongly suggests that the bad news wonât go away nearly as quickly as it arrived.â
Hereâs Italy for example:
Itâs too early in the virusâs growth in the US to know what the right side of our curve will look like, but the evidence from Europe suggests that the descent will be slow. More from OâNeil:
âNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said âthe worst is overâ and âweâve reached the peak.â He should have followed with ânow comes the long wait.â
Sheâs saying that the far side of the curve is likely to be a long, slow slog. This is food for thought for politicians who must decide when to end the lockdown.
It should also be food for thought for all of those protesting the lockdowns. In addition to the shape of the curve, we still have almost no idea what the actual prevalence of the virus is in the general population.
Abbott Labs has developed a 5 minute serology test that it says has 100% sensitivity and 99.6% specificity (Sensitivity means the test detects the presence of antibodies triggered by the COVID-19 virus; specificity means it successfully avoids mistaking that virus for similar coronaviruses).
The test was used in the Boston suburb of Chelsea. It found that of 200 randomly sampled residents who were stopped on the street and asked to give some drops of blood, 64 had antibodies. That’s 32%. The study was conducted by physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital.
John Iafrate, a pathologist at Harvard and the studyâs principal investigator, said:
âWe donât know at this point what percent of these antibody-positive individuals are still carrying virus, but a fair estimate is likely 30-50%.â
Soumya, a health reporter for the LA Times, tweeted: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âLA County just released the results of their antibody study. Tests found that 4.1% of the county’s population has antibodies to the coronavirus. That figure is 55 times higher than what is suggested by the official case count.â
This suggests that there are many more infected, but asymptomatic people than are in the official numbers.
So, we need to be more sensible about both the shape of the curve, and about how little we know about who has the disease, and who doesnât.
We’re still flying almost totally blind, four months after the government found out this was coming.
World War II lasted six years. Americans from coast to coast planted victory gardens; turned bacon grease into bombs; recycled paper, metal, and rubber. Staples like sugar were rationed. Mothers went to work in defense plants. The war lasted six years, and half a million Americans died.
Fast forward: While some might say we’re not at war, it sure feels like we’re under attack. But our flag-waviest Americans today canât even last six weeks, much less pull together.
Turns out, we have lost most of our social cohesion, the collective will to commit to a path, and work together to make the goal a reality.
In the past, we had a set of unwritten expectations that members of our society were expected to comply with, like voting, paying taxes, and displaying tolerance for others. Even these deminimus expectations are fraying today.
Weâre being told that weâre on one team, or the other: Team working, or Team lockdown. Each is supposed to do the best it can to help control the virus, but people are becoming frustrated and angry.
If you need a visual representation of the reasons why, take a look at this chart from Visual Capitalist:
The chart graphs jobs by income and degree of risk of catching COVID-19. They used the following criteria to establish level of risk:
Contact With Others: How much does this job require the worker to be in contact with others in order to perform it?
Physical Proximity: To what extent does this job require the worker to perform tasks in close physical proximity to others?
Exposure to Disease and Infection: How often does this job require exposure to hazardous conditions?
Visual Capitalist then assigned a Risk Score between 0 and 100, with 100 representing the highest possible risk to each job. More from Visual Capitalist: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âMany individuals have been practicing social distancing by working from home in recent weeks. While this arrangement can be a great way to reduce oneâs exposure to COVID-19, itâs a luxury thatâs available to just 29% of Americans.
The situation for the remaining 71% is uncertain, to say the least. A significant portion of the population has lost their jobs due to business shutdowns and mandated lockdown orders. Others employed in âessential servicesâ have continued working as usual, but may face a higher risk of potential exposure to the virus.â
Andrew Noymer, a public-health professor and an expert on the 1918 influenza pandemic, observed:
âSomeone is at home wondering how heâs going to make rent and feed his family,â he said. âAnd someone else is wondering if they can binge-watch the first season of The Sopranos…â
So itâs understandable that at least 71% of America want to end the lockdown. They are business owners who stand to lose plenty, or unemployed workers who have nothing left to lose.
Thereâs a disconnect with the end the lockdown reasoning and the world in which we live. We live, work, play, and eat together. We buy from and sell to each other. We depend on the farmers, the truck drivers, the street repair people, and the bankers. More than ever, we depend on the medical people, the teachers, and the people who run all kinds of business, big and small. And they depend on all the people who work for them.
The virus has disrupted all of that.
Are the lockdown protesters ready to pitch in and take the high risk jobs above? Will they drive the buses? Wait on tables? Deliver the groceries? Clean hospital rooms? Work with people who may be infected in nursing homes?
Time to wake up, America! We need to reach back and try for more social cohesion, or weâre lost. To help us wake up, we turn to Bob Dylan. Letâs listen to his âSlow Train Comingâ:
Today, it’s no longer a Slow Train. It’s high-balling down the track.
Sample lyric:
Big-time negotiators, false healers and woman haters
Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition
But the enemy I see wears a cloak of decency
All nonbelievers and men stealers talkingâ in the name of religion
And thereâs a slow, slow train cominâ up around the bend
People starving and thirsting, grain elevators are bursting
Oh, you know it costs more to store the food than it do to give it
They say lose your inhibitions follow your own ambitions
They talk about a life of brotherly love show me someone who knows how to live it
Thereâs a slow, slow train cominâ up around the bend
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
One week ago, the cumulative US COVID-19 death toll was 15,000. Seven days later, the death toll is now 36,000. That means in a week, about 21,000 Americans have died, a growth rate of 140%. In the past two months, hereâs how US coronavirus deaths have grown:
Feb 17: 0 deaths
March 17: 111 deaths
April 17: 36,997 deaths
Although deaths are a lagging indicator for how successful we are in our efforts to contain the Coronavirus, and despite all the happy talk about flattening the curve, this looks like a rocket ship leaving the launch pad.
However, of those 660 who were positive, 60% have not shown any symptoms associated with the illness. This should cause us to question the true rate of infections in the US. The proportion of people who are asymptomatic carriers worldwide remains unknown, but at 60%, the Theodore Rooseveltâs figure is higher than the 25%-50% range Dr. Fauci laid out in early April.
Taking these two data points together, America should proceed carefully as it leaves the lockdown.
On to cartoons. Another day, another spin of the big blame wheel:
With big business, some things never change:
If not his signature, then certainly his fingerprints:
The rightâs narrative that can kill:
Individual responsibility has consequences:
John Roberts has to live with his Wisconsin voting decision:
