“More than 230,000 people have died from COVID! I hope everyone remembers that on Election Day!” “Are you suggesting Trump is responsible for the 230,000 deaths? He’s kept you alive. A dubious achievement, I grant you. But there’s about 330 million people in the US, so why not look at it that way? He’s kept almost 330 million people alive.” “I’ve kept myself alive. I wear a mask, wash my hands, social distancing . . .” “Sure, sure . . . are you saying we can choose whether or not to be infected? Everyone knows what’s safe and unsafe. Did the 230,000 people choose to get sick and die? Or did everyone who’s still here take care of themselves but all the deaths are on Trump? “And by the way, your death count is too low by about a million people. You’re citing the death count for one country. It’s… Read more →
EppsNet Archive: COVID-19
I Don’t Think I Would Be Allowed to Run a Store
The convenience store where I buy sodas in the morning has literally four signs at the entrance saying wear a face covering if you come in the store. This morning a guy comes in with no face covering and a cup. The girl at the register says to him, “You can’t come in without a face covering.” “I’m just going to get a cup of water,” he says. So there’s another problem, which is that nobody knows the provenance of that cup and he’s going to push it into a public water dispenser. “You can’t be in here without a face covering,” the girl says a little more loudly. “I said I’m just going to get a cup of water!” Which he does. When I get to the register, I say to the girl, “I don’t think I could run a store because I would pick up the gun that… Read more →
I Blame Donald Trump
Playlists for Pandemics
Come take a walk on the wild side Come kiss me hard in the pouring rain You like your girls insane So, choose your last words, this is the last time ‘Cause you and I, we were born to die — Lana Del Rey, “Born to Die” Read more →
We Need a Better Coronavirus Metric
The U.S. reports a record day of cases: 36,880 new coronavirus cases were reported on Wednesday, which is the largest one-day total since the start of the pandemic. Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas reported their highest single-day totals. — Medium This is misleading, isn’t it? We’re doing more testing. It’s a lot easier to get tested than it used to be. You don’t need to have symptoms. You don’t need a doctor’s order. Pharmacies are now doing drive-thru testing. The CVS in my neighborhood takes testing appointments at 10-minute intervals from 9am to 5pm. And they’re not easy to get. People are booking them up. I just got my test yesterday (results next week). It sounds like from that 36,880 number that more people are being infected. It sounds like that is what’s being implied. But there’s really no way to know that from the data provided. Obviously if… Read more →
We Giveth But We Also Taketh Away, Just Like God
“As driving behaviors evolve during the COVID-19 pandemic, XYZ Insurance Company is working to reduce auto rates in every state. The national average for those rate reductions is 11%, saving customers a total of approximately $2.2 billion. “‘Current driving data and claims experience show a considerable decline in miles driven and fewer accidents,’ said XYZ Senior Vice President Kristyn Cook-Turner. ‘As a result, we’re looking for ways to continue supporting our customers while we monitor and adjust to trends.’ “‘On the flip side, we’ve also noticed that a lot more of our customers are getting sick and dying,’ Cook-Turner continued, ‘so we’ll be correspondingly increasing premiums for health and life insurance.’ “‘You win a few, you lose a few.’” Read more →
Souplantation, 1978-2020
Souplantation is closing all of its restaurants permanently, a casualty of the coronavirus pandemic. I was probably one of their last customers . . . we had dinner at the Irvine location a few days before restaurants had to close for in-person dining. The place was at least 70 percent empty at that time. It is hard to believe we’ll never be able to go there again. Souplantation was one of our favorite family restaurants, maybe the number one favorite. This feels like the death of a family member . . . so many Souplantation memories . . . RIP Souplantation Read more →
I’m Going to Start Robbing Banks
Why do you rob banks? Because that’s where the money is. — Willie Sutton (probably apocryphal) I’m going to start sticking up banks. Not long ago, if you walked into a bank wearing a mask over your face, someone would immediately reach for an alarm or a gun. Now it’s required. I could walk in and clean out the teller before anyone suspects a thing. I think I’ll hone my craft first by knocking off a few gas stations and convenience stores. “Can you describe the suspect?” “I can’t, officer. He was wearing a mask.” Read more →
How the Media Completely Blew the Trump Ventilator Story
FEMA acted quickly — much faster than is possible in the regular process — to get so-called notifications to purchase to ventilator manufacturers, so they could start work and hold their inventory, which ensured it wasn’t lost to foreign countries. The Defense Production Act was invoked with General Motors to get production moving as quickly as possible, and not back-loaded later in the summer. “We are going to be swimming in ventilators.” Last year, according to administration figures, the country produced 30,000 ventilators. This year, it’s going to produce something on the order of 200,000, and they are already coming in. “The balance now is growing daily,” the White House adviser says of the federal stockpile. “We are going to be swimming in ventilators.” By any measure, that’s a success, certainly compared with where we thought we’d be less than a month ago. If the media weren’t so devoted to… Read more →
Goofus and Gallant on COVID-19
Goofus: I am stuck. I’ll never make it through this situation, and even if I do, I won’t be as successful as I was before. This is a downward spiral. Gallant: I am Growing. I am making progress – sometimes gradually and other times rapidly – with learning new skills and developing better habits. I am becoming stronger through these trying times, and so are many others in my work organization and community. Goofus: I am fragmented. I’m being pulled in too many directions to be truly helpful to anyone. Gallant: I am Integrating. I am drawing upon a broad reservoir of resources from my varied experiences, which can help me navigate new challenges. My authenticity and vulnerability can help me to build deeper connections and establish healthy boundaries with trusted colleagues during trying times. Goofus: I am incapable. I don’t have enough courage to meet this challenge,… Read more →
Nobody is Fine Anymore
How are you doing? Remember when you’d automatically say “Fine”? Now nobody is fine. We’re all programmed from our caveman days with a fight-or-flight system, but there’s a big difference between a predator stepping out in front of us and COVID-19. They’re both threats, but the predator is what we’d call an acute short-term threat. This is really what our system was developed to handle. There’s something there, I have to do something now and you do something. With COVID the threat is chronic. It’s there all the time. Not only is it chronic, it’s undefined, it’s ambiguous, and it’s not even just the virus. It’s the economic impact of the virus, it’s the lifestyle changes, it’s the isolation, it’s the not being able to hug people we would like to hug, that is all feeding into this threat system. We really evolved to take on short-term acute threats. We… Read more →