COVID-19: Early March 2020
03/05/2020: Stocks continue to slide. The first U.S. coronavirus death outside Washington State is reported in California. Cases surpass 200 in the U.S. and 97,800 worldwide.
03/06/2020: Paranoid enough to disinfect my home computer keyboard and phone using Lysol wipes.
Trump today on whether or not to bring coronavirus patients on a cruise ship to shore: “I like the numbers being where they are.”
Trump today: “Anybody that wants a test can get a test. That’s what the bottom line is.” (source)
NOTE: This was untrue at the time. The previous day, Vice President Mike Pence said, “We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward.”
03/08/2020: Still no cases in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, or Alabama. Lucky or just undiscovered/unreported???
03/09/2020: Louisiana has its first presumptive positive case. The patient is a Jefferson Parish resident who is hospitalized in Orleans. The national total of infections approached 600, doubling since Friday.
03/10/2020: Out for lunch at Vietnamese restaurant. Normally bustling, now almost empty. Feeling paranoid about surfaces. Two more Louisiana cases announced in the afternoon.
(Update: this would turn out to be our last trip to a restaurant)
- Nationwide cases: 804 (source: Johns Hopkins University)
- Louisiana cases: 6 (source: LA Dept of Public Health)
Public spaces around the world are empty:
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2020/03/empty-spaces-due-coronavirus-fears/607666/
Corona is a black light and America is a cum-stained hotel room
— Megan Amram (@meganamram) March 10, 2020
Trump today: “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
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