COVID19 Update - Day 6

US Tests: 41,792
US Cases: 4,018
US Deaths: 71
Worldwide Cases: 181,377
Worldwide Deaths: 7,119

In retrospect, there will be a lot of things to criticize about the U.S. response to COVID-19.  But there is probably no more damning indictment of our government's response than the number at the top of the page.  In about 2 months since COVID-19 emerged as a health threat, the U.S. has conducted a TOTAL of just under 42,000 tests for the disease, or about 700 per day.

By contrast, South Korea is conducting 10,000 tests per day.

And while it seems that --- FINALLY --- people are starting to recognize the threat and behave responsibly in terms of social distancing, there are still some stragglers.  And unfortunately, some of these stragglers are in a position to do great damage.

Right-wing Texas nutjob Louie Gohmert is holding up the COVID-19 relief bill in the House, for reasons that only he can comprehend.  And that's probably just as well, since right-wing Kentucky nutjob (and Senate majority leader) Mitch McConnell appears to be in no hurry to vote on the legislation in the Senate.  Mind you, this isn't even about partisan politics, since this bill passed the House with only 40 'No' votes, and also has the backing of the Trump White House.  Apparently these guys are just holding thing up to be dicks (Mission Accomplished!).

On the personal side --- there's not a lot of news to report, actually.  I guess at this point, no news is good news.  My first day working from home was uneventful.  There was a small amount of excitement when one of my coworkers reported, during standup, that he had been in a store with someone who later tested positive.  I don't know all the details, and obviously I hope everyone is all right.  But I'm not concerned that it will affect me personally, since this apparently happened after I last saw this coworker on Thursday.

Another coworker sent out an email letting everyone know that person X had joined the team today, and so to celebrate, donuts were available and sitting outside his office for everyone to pick up.  This confused me, because I thought we were all SUPPOSED to be working from home.  Also, it's strange how the pandemic changes your attitude about this kind of thing --- eating a donut from a communal box of donuts right now is one of the last things I would consider doing.

Stay home.  Stay safe.