Today we heard testimony from Dr. Rick Bright, the former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (this is a federal agency under HHS that is in charge of fighting bioterrorism but also procuring vaccines and responding to pandemics), who was ousted by the Trump administration for sounding the alarm on the pandemic and refusing to promote hydroxychloroquine without scientific evidence that it actually worked. Dr. Bright testified in the House today as a whistleblower because he lost his job in retaliation for ... being a good scientist and doing his job. Dr. Bright had plenty to say, including that we're in deep shit (yes, he literally said that), but here's the summary:
"Our window of opportunity is closing. Without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history."
In contrast, here's what Trump said today. God, the stupid just hurts.
"When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases."
Soooooo what I'm hearing here is that he doesn't want to do any more testing, and somehow he believes that without testing, people won't get COVID-19, won't get sick, and won't die at alarming numbers. Sure, good plan, bro. Too bad there's no historical data that can confirm or refute your theory. Oh wait.
via @SciBabe
On the home front, it was a very very long day for me. My main job was busy, so I ended up working 6 hours for that job today, and then I had a job for another client that was on a tight deadline, so I worked 8+ hours on that too. All this hustling for jobs and stressing out about where work is coming from is stressing me out. It's not that we're in trouble financially (we're not, and we're being as careful as we can not to be); it's just the constant uncertainty that's wearing me down.
There was no elearning today, so the boys spent the whole day waiting for a delivery from Amazon that came in the afternoon. They each had their own money and wanted to order things. Max ordered a Nintendo gift card so he could buy a video game and download it. Liam ordered a new controller. And Henry ... well, Henry ordered something he's been asking for every day for six weeks:
Listen, there's only so long I can resist. He earned that $40 doing yard work for my sister, for my parents, for the neighbor. If what makes him happiest is a a crusader helmet because he's watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail with his dad one too many times, then so be it. Who am I to judge? And this thing is heavy! It can be clubbed! (Please dear heavens don't let them start clubbing each other.) So Henry spent the rest of his day playing video games in his helmet, baking cookies in his helmet, and watching YouTube in his helmet. Oh, and going around telling everyone "It's just a flesh wound!"
Nationwide cases: 1,417,889. Deaths: 85,906.
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