Slouching Towards Oblivion

Saturday, July 11, 2020

COVID-19 Update

Another big day yesterday.


Top 20 Countries


Top 20 States


And now here we go into the fatalistic phase.


When the pandemic began, Darcy Scott worried most about her parents, who are in their 80s and among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. To keep them safe, her brother drove them 27 hours from Kerrville, Tex., to Churchton, Md., where Scott and her husband were hunkered down.

But after a couple of months, Texas started to open up and her parents wanted to go home. Scott’s brother drove them back, and since then, she has watched with growing dread as her parents have resumed many of their regular activities even as the infection rates there have climbed.

“Mom went back to the gym, to aqua aerobics. Dad went out to pick up the recycling around town,” Scott said. “So there you go, we expended 11 weeks of our lives, and now our parents are wading around in a cesspool of germs.”

The effects of covid-19 are most devastating for older people, with a 30 percent death rate among people over 85 in the United States who develop it. Many in that age group are sheltering in place and skipping social events in an effort to avoid the virus that causes the disease, and younger family members have often stayed away or gotten coronavirus tests before seeing them, to protect them.

Sometimes, people cop an attitude about it: "I've lived thru worse" or "I've had a good run, and I'm not going to cower under the bed..."

"If it gets me, it gets me."


This whole thing just gets weirder and weirder.


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