covid diary: day 118

Summer storm, just enough to cancel tennis for tonight.

We all know that the U.S. leads the world in cases of COVID-19, right? We're *thisclose* to having 3 million cases. But which country takes the number 2 spot? If you answered BRAZIL, give yourself a pat on the back, because unless I'm married to you or gave birth to you, I'm definitely not getting close enough to pat you on the back myself.

Ahem.

Brazil has more than 1.6 million cases of COVID-19, and more than 65,000 Brazilians have died. But high infection and death rates aren't all our two countries have in common. That's right, Brazil, like the U.S., is led by a right-wing, science-denying, let-all-the-rainforests-burn shitwheel. His name is Jair Bolsonaro, and today, after months of saying dumb things like "it's just a little flu" and "what do you expect me to do about it?" and "our lives have to go on; jobs should be maintained" ... he tested positive for COVID-19. Bolsonaro is 65 years old, so he's in a higher risk group, but he thinks he'll be just fine because he's athletic.

Oh yeah, and because he's been taking hydroxychloroquine. 

Best of luck to you, President Bolsonaro, and I sincerely hope that your experience leaves you with a giant dose of empathy and a better understanding of where your countries priorities should be. And an inclination to finally start wearing a mask regularly to model good citizenship.

Meanwhile, back on American soil, Donald Trump had a roundtable on safely reopening schools, at which he spouted this familiar talking point: “If we did half the testing we’d have far fewer cases.”

That's like saying that as long as you don't take a test, you're not pregnant, even if you miss your period and have morning sickness and suddenly can't stand the smell of anything but especially cooked lamb (gross). As long as we don't do MRIs, nobody has brain tumors, right? And broken bones? We could heckin' ELIMINATE those by just not doing x-rays!

You guys, I think I know how to CURE CANCER. My plan will totally work. All we have to do is stop doing physical exams, biopsies, mammograms, MRIs (which we already eliminated; thanks, brain tumors!), CT scans, and blood work. Presto! No more cancer.

Why do people fall for this garbage? This is a seriously stupid argument, and yet 40 percent of the country still approves of this clown.

Oh, and speaking of being at the top, turns out that thanks to our weekend surge in new cases, Marshall County is now the biggest hot spot in Indiana. Just in time for all the kids to go back to school for sports times! I'm not as nervous about tennis as I would be about other sports (thank goodness Max decided not to try out for soccer and to do track in the spring instead!), but I'm still quite nervous about what it will mean to have a bunch of kids scrimmaging, lifting weights, running together, and doing conditioning for this next month.

And five weeks from tomorrow, supposedly we go back to school. I understand all the reasons for having schools be open. I really do. And trust me, as a working parent, I know how hard it is to work while you're overseeing your kids' education. I knew even before pandemic times because I've worked from home for 13 years now, so anytime a kid is sick, or it's fall break or winter break or summer, I've been here, working and parenting at the same time. It sucks. So I feel for all the parents out there who have been thrown into this. But at the same time, I'm not convinced that the solution is to put all our kids back into giant petri dishes (and let's face it, that's what schools are) and see what sprouts.

Nationwide cases: 2,981,602. Deaths: 131,248.