US Tests: 153,332,392*
US Cases: 11,748,947*
US Deaths: 245,537*
Worldwide Cases: 57,517,850*
Worldwide Deaths: 1,371,589*
* - Numbers are a lower bound. True numbers are being suppressed by the Trump administration
Personal news first tonight.
I'm in love!
And if you're asking yourself what that has to do with the #TrumpVirus, then clearly you haven't tried dating at any time in the past 8 months.
The problem, of course, is that she and I are both in our own bubbles, and we're both very cautious when it comes to spreading the virus. And so it's been a process getting to the point where many couples start on a first date --- which is to say, holding hands ungloved, much less kissing.
I'm not kidding. On our third date, we actually wore plastic gloves so that we could hold hands. Don't judge us.
Anyway, after much semi-quarantining and waiting and taking precautions, we agreed that tonight would be THE NIGHT that she would finally come to my place and we would take off our masks and behave like a normal couple.
Only we didn't. She's not here right now, and she's not coming.
Because two days ago, I caught a cold. At least, I'm pretty sure it's a cold. It's a very, very mild sore throat. And to be perfectly honest, I wanted to just ignore it and keep our date anyway. But she's more responsible than I am, and so she postponed our date AND insisted that I get myself tested.
And so today, I got my first test for the #TrumpVirus. It was unpleasant, but quick. It was the kind where they stick a swab way, way, WAAAAYYY up your nose. It makes me cringe just to think about it.
Anyway --- I've been planning this date for weeks, and it totally sucks that it got postponed due to what is almost certainly a mild head cold. But as much as I hate it, I completely agree with her that it's the right thing to do.
Trust me --- if I can postpone this date, then people should be able to skip their traditional large Thanksgiving gathering.
Look, I get that people aren’t robots. We’re all suffering from COVID fatigue. We don’t want to do this any more. But consider what we’re facing: Deaths caused by COVID-19, both directly and indirectly — lots of places are running out of ICU space already — are going to hit several thousand per day very soon. The overwhelming majority of those deaths would be preventable by taking what we now can be confident will be a very short-term moderate lockdown approach — a matter of behaving like we actually care about our own lives and those of our neighbors for perhaps 12 weeks!