My Coronavirus Diary Part 55

There are more than 1.2 million cases of the virus in the United States. We have had nearly 76,000 deaths. The Trump Administration's reckless drive to re-open the country and re-ignite the economy had them ignore a detailed guide on re-opening safely. By ignoring these guidelines, you are insuring more infections and more deaths. Profits over people. Insane.

One of the president's valets has tested positive for the virus. The president will now be tested daily (but is not about to self-quarantine or wear a mask).

A report says that the coronavirus survives in semen even after a person is cleared of infection, making it possible for it to be sexually transmitted.

People are just acting so irrational about the pandemics closures and masking rules. The other day I mentioned that a security guard was shot and killed after asking a woman to wear a mask. Since then, a woman shot a McDonald's employee because they asked her to leave the restaurant. Another man was asked to wear a mask and he wiped his nose on a cashier's sleeve. A bus driver was spit on after asking a rider to wear a mask. Hello idiots, this is why you need to wear a mask...

Fresno, CA is now mandated to wear face masks. Neighboring Clovis does not have this requirement in place.

Yesterday, registered nurses peacefully protested in front of the White House over the lack of personal protective equipment. This comes just a day after the president was honoring nurses for Nurses Week in the Oval office and one nurse mentioned having trouble obtaining PPE for herself.

Governor Andrew Cuomo is reporting that a startling 66% of new virus cases being admitted to hospitals were people who had been sheltering in place. Most people live in apartments in New York City, with shared halls, elevators, and ventilation systems, etc. Might that explain it? Just my guess...

Governor Cuomo is NOT planning to open the state of New York until things are safe to do so. Bravo!

People in Washington state have apparently been having illegal Coronavirus parties.

Montana is re-opening schools.  Michigan is re-opening in phases. Pennsylvania is going start re-opening today. Oregon has a targeted May 15th first stage re-opening planned.

In Atlanta, Georgia there was a brawl the day a big mall re-opened. It was captured on video.

California is preparing to start re-opening. Although they are open in Georgia, California's Governor Newsom says that nail salons are a source of community virus spread and will not be opening Monday. San Francisco is looking at starting to re-open around May 18th.  In Fresno, local restaurants are beginning to think about what they'll need to do before they can re-open.

Israel is reporting a breakthrough antibody treatment that sounds promising.

Moderna is about to start Phase 2 of its clinical trials for a vaccine.

Remdesivir, the drug that seems to be effective against the virus, was the victim of a Trump Administration blunder, that caused it not to be shipped to several hospitals that really needed it.

Hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug the president was touting as a miracle cure for the virus, was discounted by doctors a while back as not helping--and possibly hurting patients suffering from COVID 19. A new study of the drug from Columbia University showed that, yep, the drug was useless against the infection.

Due to the outbreak in meat processing plants, shortages are already occurring in fast food restaurants and other places. Because of infection in so many processing plants, some farmers are looking at possibly having to kill their livestock.


In the midst of this pandemic, Washington state now has to deal with a new menace, murder hornets. My friend Linda sent me a great meme about how the bees in Washington are now preparing for that.

My friend Christa sent me a link to a video about a virologist named Judy Mikovits. Her story is shocking and her claims again Dr, Anthony Fauci are startling. She maintains (although the way she explains it, she's just hypothesizing and has not actually studied the coronavirus) that the virus was manipulated in a lab. Before taking the video at face value, I looked her up on a fact checker website, Snopes.com. She has a history of being discredited and  has also been embraced by "Deep State" conspiracy / anti-vaccination groups. I'm sure the real truth and what she is saying or believes is somewhere in between. I include the video for your consideration...but question what it is saying, look up the information and decide for yourself.

Oops! Apparently the video has already been removed by YouTube...possibly because it is propagating misinformation? Never mind... Oh, yes it was due to misinformation. I saw something about it online.

Speaking of videos, quarantining continues to bring out a lot of creativity in people. Here are a few videos I've come across recently.

This was fabulous--the "Family Lockdown Boogie"--probably my favorite of the batch below:

Parodies are often quite fun. Here is the parodied song "Under the Sea" from Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID.

Here is a parody of "Sweet Caroline":

Anyone up for a COVID 19 version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"?

Classic Beatles parody featuring a creepy version of the Fab Four singing themselves:

Here is a disco parody for the pandemic:

And just in time for the end of National Teacher's Appreciation Week, here is a parody about having to home school during the pandemic.

And if none of those worked for you, maybe you need to visit Quarantine Kitchen for some cocktails...

Cheers!



I heard from my friend Anita in the Bay Area. Anita is a nurse who used to work with me at the hospital I am currently employed with.

"These are definitely some crazy times," she said. "My family lives in Turlock, about 1 1/2 hours from here. They are okay. My parents are over 65, so of course I worry about them. Luckily their county has not been struck like some of the others.

"Things in the Bay Area have been interesting. There are lines to go into stores, as they monitor the number of people coming in and out. I see the employees wiping down every cart. I think these are all great things and kind of wish we did them anyway. We also lose so many people to the flu every year. I think this will definitely change our future.

"I cannot believe all the protests. Our governor, in my opinion, has done a pretty good job trying to contain this virus. We are a pretty populated state and could have had it way worse, like poor New York. I can't believe people are suing him. I think unfortunately, the society we live in is full of entitled people looking for instant gratification. I get the people who just want to go to work since they have bills to pay; totally sympathize and cannot imagine how that feels. But the people who just want to go to the beach because its a sunny day? Come on! I love and miss the beach too, but so many people have lost their lives -- we have to take things a little slower. But for some people, its just 'it's sunny today, I need to go to the beach.' (insert eye roll)

"Thankfully, I have been working from home 2-3 days per week and go to clinic the other 1-2 days. I also dropped a day per pay period and have every other Monday off -- 3 day weekends every other weekend. I guess that is the bright side of working outpatient, although I miss inpatient dearly.

"Things are changing so fast, I heard some stuff is supposed to open tomorrow."


Mikey in Iowa sent a note.

"The cases jumped here from 2 to 9," he said of his county's infection numbers.  "Some were at the nursing home, but most were between the ages of 0-18.  That's how they put it. Who is age 0?

"The only thing we need to worry about is going to Walmart for groceries, Casey's for gas,  and,  of course, the post office.  Now that I'm processing my own postage online,  my time at the post office has been greatly reduced. The last time I got gas, a customer somewhere in the back of the store coughed. Then suddenly, there were 2 more cases. Hmm.

"I'm surprised at the number of cases in our county, because I figured the neighboring county would be the one where the cases climbed because that's where Walmart is."


Speaking of Walmart, my friend Art in Boston sent me this quick note:

Stay the hell out of Walmart stores," he said. "At least in Massachusetts..."

He then included a link to an article about how more store employees were infected and how one died from COVID 19 there. He also included a link to another article mentioning an additional 1,696 new cases just added in the state.

"These numbers are unbelievable," he said. "We're going in the wrong direction, yet our governor is talking about a partial re-opening on May 18th. Hello? McFly?"


My friend Kevin also lives in Massachusetts. He sent a quick note as well. I don't know where he got his information from, but it was a bit eye opening.

 "Apparently all the 'dating' apps are proliferating right now as people are going on virtual dates and/or having virtual sex," he said. "So people can't be all that lonely, correct? But it is their need to feel, to taste, to smell, to touch. That's what's making them crazy, itching to go out. Virtual can't beat physical. I think by now that people have the need SO bad that even getting physically beaten up beats being home alone."


My friend Angel in Colombia sent a note...and a first look at his new family member.

"I'm fine thanks to God and my family is fine," he said. "We are all taking care of ourselves. I am living alone, but I keep paying my parents' rent... and helping my family in Venezuela."

"In Colombia, the disease did not do much harm. In my city, there were only 26 cases and they are already cured.

"Now I have Lucas to keep me company."

Shirley the tortoise really must be part monkey. I went to check on her on Wednesday afternoon. I couldn't find her, but was sure she was in the yard somewhere. I looked for her later and couldn't find her again. Where was she? And then I happened to notice the top of this particular bush she likes start to shake and out popped this little gray-green periscope-like thing. It was Shirley peeking out. She was climbing the bushes again.

The bushes aren't that tall, but she is a tortoise. Seeing her that far from the ground was startling. I went back and grabbed my phone to take pictures. The branches are thick, so it is kind of hard to gauge  her position in the photo below. I'm above, looking down at her. Notice you can see into her shell. She was almost vertical when I took this picture.

I took a short video of her adventures exploration. It is still hard to see, but she is definitely off of the ground.

Crazy girl...

On Wednesday morning, I had some good news. I guess outpatient medical procedures have been given an okay to resume, because I got a call from my new doctor's office. I will be having my muscle biopsy on Thursday, the 14th. Thank goodness.

Late yesterday afternoon just before 5, I got a call from my doctor's office. They have extended my medical leave until July 27. Phew! That will hopefully cover me at work (unless they fire me) and give me a little more time to get things in place and hopefully come up with some sort of a diagnosis.

I had some surprises in the mail. Oh my stars! My friend Eric in Costa Mesa sent me some belated birthday things. How fun! The SpongeBob thing is Eau de Toillette (I'm almost afraid to see what it might smell like...). I'm a huge Scooby Doo fan and the Ooze stuff is just oozy-cool. THANK YOU! Eric and his mom, Jill, both signed the card.

Scott Nicholson, my author friend in North Carolina, sent me a mask that his wife made. ("It was as close to tiki as we had fabric for," he said in his note. How thoughtful. He also included a horror flick to watch. THANK YOU!!!

I had several errands to run today. The most important one was sending off my MRI CDs to the doctor who saw me at the Mayo Clinic. I needed some packing tape to wrap the package, but had none. However, there was some at the WalMart grocery store. So, I placed an order. In addition to the tape, I ordered other things, too. I ordered more low carb tortillas and some allergy pills. I was thrilled to see I could order some Lysol spray---even if all they had was lavender and lemon-scented. There were other things in my order as well. When I went to go pick it all up, I got a notice. Everything I ordered was out of stock for the most part. I only received two items---my tape and a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner. Swell...

Next, I had to run to a pharmacy to pick up a prescription. The girl at the counter had no mask. I was shocked by that, but then...we were in Clovis. There is no mask rule here.

I went to the post office and was surprised to see it virtually empty---so different than my previous visit.

Knowing there may be an upcoming beef shortage, I had planned to go to In & Out for a protein-style burger...but the line at the drive thru was a mile long. I decided to be more healthy and get a salad at El Pollo Loco instead. When I pulled up to the window, I was relieved to see that the cashier and another worker in the drive thru area were wearing masks. Further back though, i could see this tall guy assembling a bag on the main counter inside. He was not masked. He grabbed the bag of food he was prepping ---and walked it to the drive thru window. Eeek! It was my order. I ate it but the whole time i kept thinking that the guy had breathed all over it...

I have been so busy getting these blogs out daily (but now it will only be three times a week), I found I was on the computer all day long looking up articles and putting it all together. I made a promise to myself that I would get off of the computer at least long enough to get through one movie per day at the very least...just to have some "down time." I just watched what was next in the huge pile of movies I have. These are what I watched over the last couple of weeks. Nothing really stood out, though. It was quite the mixed bag o' movies...

I've also been trying to work my way through various TV series I have on DVD. INTRUDERS, THE RETURNED and EMERALD CITY were one-season wonders. INTRUDERS had an ending, but the other two were left with cliffhangers that will never be resolved. All three were interesting, but the EMERALD CITY show really impressed me. It was so not like the MGM "OZ" or anything else. It was like if the OZ stories were done in the world of GAME OF THRONES.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: APOCALYPSE was good. TIKI BAR was silly. ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE was tedious. (Great in small batches, but for hours on end? UGH!) RIVERDALE was a mistake...

Well, Shirley has called it a day. I guess I will, too.

Stay SAFE! Stay SHELTERED! Stay ALIVE!



CHEERS!



Continue to the next part HERE.