Annie Glenn, wife of astronaut and senator, John Glenn, died today at age 100.  Besides being the wife of an astronaut and senator, she also overcame a debilitating stutter and became a national advocate for the disabled.  She lived a long, full life.  What took her from us?  Coronavirus.

Fuck you, Donald Trump.  One more needless death of a great American by your gross negligence.

We all know that Trump’s incompetent and cruel response to the Coronavirus cost US lives.  Now we’re getting a sense of just how many.  During March and early April, the US recorded 8,128 deaths from COVID-19.  But, and it’s a big but, there were another over 7,000 “excess deaths” during that time not attributed to the disease, but probably were.  Here’s the graph:

“Excess deaths” is defined to be those deaths above the normal curve of mortality in the US.  Were all these deaths attributable to Coronavirus?  We don’t know because testing during that time was unavailable, and continues to be unavailable for millions of Americans.  Only history will be able to tell the story of how many died in this pandemic once this crisis is over, but I think any objective person already knows the answer.

Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, told the Times of London today that she’s 80% confident they have the vaccine and that human trials begin in two weeks.  The vaccine could be ready for distribution as early as September.  Oxford is in discussions with the UK government to begin production of the vaccine even before human trials are complete.  Here’s hoping…

Trump’s approval ratings, which always hover around the low 40s, has risen in the last month as many Americans rallied around him as he thrashed around trying to make the Coronavirus pandemic go away.  He started daily briefings for the first time in over a year and his approval went up.  Now an interesting effect of his daily exposure is occurring – people (who don’t pay much attention) are figuring out that Trump actually is doing a terrible job with the crisis.  I believe they’re figuring that out because every day, Trump:

• Lies, lies, lies.  His incessant lying results in his staff having to continuously crisis manage, backtracking on his bombastic claims of everything from cures to numbers, to non-existent vaccines and tests.
• Is permanently radically partisan.  He attacks everyone who criticizes him and airs old grievances daily.
• Cuts off the experts to spout conspiracy theories and bullshit.
• Insults the international community, WHO, NATO, and many others including his usual targets, China and “shithole” countries.
• Insults the press, refuses to answer a straight question repeats “fake news” every minute.
• Holds his “briefings” at the 5 pm newshour so his ratings are higher.  He sometimes blathers for up to 2 hours, providing very little actual new information. It wrecks news programing throughout the country.

This worked for a few weeks, but Trump is wearing pretty thin with millions of Americans.  His ratings are falling in new polls, and Biden is rising against him in key states like Florida.  I can’t watch it, but Trump is inadvertently damaging his re-election prospects by putting his incompetence and cornered badger personality every day on national television.  Even most loyal Trumpists have backed away from their idiotic boasting and taunting of normal Americans who are watching this debacle slack-jawed in disbelief.

Trump’s “winning” has now erased ALL of the stock market gains since he took office.  Unemployment this morning is 13% the highest in almost 100 years.  We are struggling with a global pandemic without the benefit of a strong pandemic response team because it was dismantled.  We are struggling with confusing and often conflicting information.  Our infection rate is understated because there is virtually no testing available.  Those who had it and have recovered have no way of confirming their illness because no serum antibody test is available.  The CDC is paralyzed by politicized appointments and slashed budgets.

Trump couldn’t do a better job of destroying the US economy if he tried.  The silver lining here, though, is that he’s putting his corruption, incompetence, and hatefulness of full display for hours every day.  Doing that is actually starting to get through to Americans who normally don’t pay attention.

As the Coronavirus outbreak was happening in Seattle, the Skagit Valley Chorale decided to go ahead with their regular choir practice on March 10 at the Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church about an hour south of the outbreak location.  Of the 121 members of the choir, 60 showed up and rehearsed for 2 1/2 hours.  Of those 60, 45 came down with COVID-19 and 2 are dead.  That’s an infection rate of 75% and a mortality rate 0f 3%.  Scientists believe that the forceful breathing required for singing caused the droplets in the breath to go farther and stay in the air longer.  Meanwhile, Liberty University is back in session, and mega churches all over the country are stupidly continuing their church services.

Be careful out there, stay home, and wash your hands.

By now you’ve heard that Rand Paul has tested positive for the Coronavirus and is quarantined.  He says that he suspected he might be infected because of all of his exposure in recent days from those who are also testing positive.  Even though he suspected he had it, he did not self-quarantine, and was indeed continuing close proximity meetings with other senators.  He also went swimming yesterday morning in the Senate pool at their gym (which, BTW, had been closed).  That’s right, DR. Rand Paul has exposed God knows how many people AFTER he thought he was exposed, and AFTER he was tested.  Senators Mitt Romney and Mike Lee have both now self-quarantined due to their prolonged and close exposure to Paul.  What an asshole.

Jesus.