Monday Mood: Drinking from a Fire Hose

Keeping up with the news lately has been like trying to drink from a fire hose: sensory overload. Haven’t posted anything in 2 weeks because I’ve been struggling to process information. I’m grateful for Heather Cox Richardson who masterfully distills daily headlines citing reputable sources. When I feel overwhelmed by news feeds, I read her blog first for a no-nonsense recap of the day before. Then I check various headlines and blogs for other perspectives. Twitter has been particularly useful for following local journalists documenting Portland OR protests. Will share more about that and other things tomorrow, hopefully.

  

Daily pandemic update:  Aljazeera.com timeline

• WHO warned pandemic could get far worse if countries around the world do not follow basic healthcare precautions.
• Hong Kong is set to impose its toughest restricting measures after authorities warned the risk of a large-scale outbreak was extremely high.
• North Korea placed the city of Kaesong near the border with South Korea under total lockdown over coronavirus concerns, and declared a state of emergency to contain a potential outbreak.
• Russia, the fourth worst-hit country in the world, surpassed 800,000 coronavirus infections.
• South African Medical Research Council reported a "huge discrepancy" between the country’s confirmed COVID-19 deaths and the number of excess deaths from natural causes. 
• Iran, the Middle East's worst-hit country, reported a new single-day record death toll of 229 from the coronavirus. Iran began relaxing its lockdown in mid-April.
• Scientists at Oxford University said their experimental coronavirus vaccine prompted a protective immune response in hundreds of people who got the shot. The vaccine called AZD1222 is one of 150 in development globally, but is considered the most advanced.

27 July 2020	Cases		Deaths		Recovered
10:13 GMT*	Mon 7/13	Mon 7/27	Mon 7/13	Mon 7/27	Mon 7/13	Mon 7/27
World	13,062,360	16,442,487	572,214	652,608	7,610,533	10,064,736
US	3,414,105	4,371,992	137,787	149,852	1,517,560	2,090,231
CA		459,195		8,455		141,211
NY	427,638	439,885	32,403	32,689	177,508	281,625
FL		423,855		5,855		41,866
TX		397,992		5,144		229,107
AZ		162,014		3,305		20,978
NC	85,730	112,771	1,533	1,813	55,318	78,707
CT	47,287	48,776	4,348	4,413	16,885	22,872

Worldometers     Coronainusa     Starsexpress2020     https://ncov2019.live/


When I began blogging mid March 2020, only 3 states held my attention: NY was US epicenter, CT because son Reid lives there, and NC because I live here. In recent weeks infections increased sharply in many states with CA, FL, and TX rising the fastest, leading me to look at a wider variety of states and regions. The NE region was hit hardest early on though new cases and deaths are trending much lower now. Southern and western states are currently seeing the biggest spikes in cases and deaths. During the past week, new cases in the US reached 70,000 each day while deaths surpassed 1,000 daily.

A moment of silence for those we’ve lost to coronavirus, including the first 100 and the first 100,000 in the US.

As of today 7% of closed cases in the US resulted in death; 93% recovered.

Globally 6% of closed cases resulted in death worldwide; 94% recovered.

Currently 1% of active cases are considered serious or critical.  

  

Johns Hopkins University is considered to have accurate and trusted COVID data and maps utilizing information gathered from individual US state databases and the World Health Organization. The Atlantic’s COVID Tracking Project also utilizes data obtained from individual states rather than federal data collected by the CDC or Department of Health and Human Services.  

In my personal life... 

Saturday Greg and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary, and the 20th anniversary of our first date. 💗