COVID19 Update - Day 27

US Tests: 1,917,095
US Cases: 361,331
US Deaths: 10,680
Worldwide Cases: 1,341,907
Worldwide Deaths: 74,565

Things continue to worsen.  Americans are now dying at the rate of more than 1,000 per day.  And not only that, we're falling behind the rest of the world.  One week ago the U.S. accounted for just 7.8% of coronavirus deaths worldwide.  Today, 14.3% of worldwide deaths are American --- our proportion of the overall death total has nearly doubled in just one week!

This should not come as a surprise to anyone who read the Washington Post Saturday:

The administration often seemed weeks behind the curve in reacting to the viral spread, closing doors that were already contaminated. Protracted arguments between the White House and public health agencies over funding, combined with a meager existing stockpile of emergency supplies, left vast stretches of the country’s health-care system without protective gear until the outbreak had become a pandemic. Infighting, turf wars and abrupt leadership changes hobbled the work of the coronavirus task force.

It may never be known how many thousands of deaths, or millions of infections, might have been prevented with a response that was more coherent, urgent and effective. But even now, there are many indications that the administration’s handling of the crisis had potentially devastating consequences.

In other news, the federal government continues to block some states from getting the medical equipment they need --- this time in Kentucky:

State officials have also requested additional gloves, masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) from the Strategic National Stockpile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and through private contracts.

But in most cases, [Kentucky Governor Andy] Beshear said the federal government got it first.

“Our biggest problem is that just about every single order that we have out there for PPE, we get a call right when it’s supposed to be shipped and it’s typically the federal government has bought it,” Beshear said during a Saturday press conference. “It’s very hard to buy things when the federal government is there and anytime they want to buy it, they get it first.”

This is just the latest example of the federal government basically confiscating medical supplies from states.  And although it's easy to surmise some sinister motive behind it (we're talking about Trump, after all), Josh Marshall conjectures that the real explanation is simpler and stupider: that the feds are taking supplies away from the states because the feds dropped the ball in getting ahead of the virus, and so basically stealing medical supplies is the only way for the feds to get them.

On a personal note --- not to sound like a broken record, but --- each day is pretty much like every other.  There was one noteworthy change today, though.

I'm a software developer, and I work on a contract basis.  Today I was notified that the agency which holds my contract will no longer pay its contractors as soon as they've received payment of their invoices.  Instead, effective immediately, they will move to a 'net 30' payment model, which means that contractors will be paid 30 days after the billing period in which they do their work.

This is a more industry-standard way of handling these payments, so there's nothing necessarily concerning about the change.  But it DOES mean that it will now be more than a month before any contractors receive their next payment --- which is bad timing for us contractors, given the state of the economy.  But possibly a necessary cost-savings measure for the agency.