According to the New York Times, every day for the past month, at least 1,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. Every day. And every one of those days, at least 25,000 additional Americans have tested positive. Every day. Cases are going down in New York City (thankfully), but if you look at the whole country without NYC, cases are slowly, steadily, inexorably going up. Look at the list of counties with the highest rate of new infections per number of residents: Trousdale, Tennessee. Lincoln, Arkansas. Dakota, Nebraska. Nobles, Minnesota. Bledsoe, Tennessee. Rockland, New York. Cass, Indiana. Marion, Ohio. Pickaway, Ohio. Westchester, New York. Not exactly urban meccas, those.
And yet the push is on to reopen everything. To go everywhere, to get back to work. The federal government is beginning to wind down the (admittedly useless) coronavirus task force, with plans to shut it down entirely by Memorial Day and call it a success. While thousands of Americans continue to die every day. While the curve is still going up.
It's exhausting and disheartening.
Today was a busy day at work, which I'm thankful for. Every time I had a second between jobs, I watched the birds, and they put on a lively show all day long. They're still out there, enjoying the buffet we put out for them, and flying away whenever Thunder sticks his big face in my window. They don't mind Pluto, though, because he likes to just flop down and watch them quietly.
So that's the report for today. Everything is terrible, the world is on fire, nobody's in charge, but the birds are still out there.
Nationwide cases: 1,204,475. Deaths: 71,078.
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