I’m just starting my 4th week of working from home, and I must say, I could get used to this. It’s quiet, people have to schedule a call with me so I’m not being pestered constantly, no one wanders aimlessly into my office looking for someone else… it’s pretty sweet. Also, there are pets.
Blogging has been difficult. The news is exactly the same except wildly worse every day, and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything we can do about any of it. The days are so similar that time blurs and runs together and it gets difficult to keep track of what’s happening when.
I’ve started taking little notes so I can keep track of things. Here are those notes.
🦠 Dr. Aaron Carroll writes in the New York Times, “How Will We Know When It’s Time to Reopen the Nation?” He offers four benchmarks we might be able to use to determine when it’s safe to start “reopening” the nation. They include, 1. hospitals being able to safely treat all patients without resorting to crisis care, 2. states being able to at least test everyone showing symptoms, 3. states being able to conduct monitoring of confirmed cases and their contacts, and 4. a sustained reduction in cases for at least 14 days.
🦠 New Zealand apparently wasn’t in the mood to fuck around with COVID-19. They slammed down a hella strict lockdown, and it seems to be working.
🦠 The New York Times buried this surprising-but-not-really-surprising nugget about five paragraphs down in this article about that malaria/lupus drug Trump’s so hot n’ bothered about: “If hydroxychloroquine becomes an accepted treatment, several pharmaceutical companies stand to profit, including shareholders and senior executives with connections to the president. Mr. Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.”
👀 There’s this, which probably everyone has seen by now, but just in case you haven’t, “Wildlife is finally returning to Britain’s streets. Nature is healing 😍✌️“
🎞️ #AvengersEndgame was trending on Twitter today because it’s Endgame‘s one-year anniversary and folks were sharing audience reactions to Endgame‘s big moments. Here’s the Mjolnir scene, the “I am Iron Man” scene, and the portals scene.
🚢 So you might remember that there was a Navy ship stricken with COVID-19 and its captain put out basically a public call for help because no one would help them, and then he got fired, and then he got COVID-19, but at least the ship got help, then the captain’s boss called the captain an idiot. Well, the captain’s boss just resigned, which is what you call it when you’re important but you still get your ass canned for being a sociopathic dumbass in public.
🇺🇸 So Congress passed that two trillion dollar spending bill, and they specifically mandated an inspector general to keep an eye on it and make sure it was spent properly. They did that mostly so Trump couldn’t get his sticky little hands on it. Well, Trump fired that guy. I give it three days before Trump tries to steal the stimulus money to build his goddamn wall.
All right, folks, that’s enough for today. More Quarantine Notes tomorrow.
Notes & Thoughts 