Friday, April 17, 2020

Self-isolation Day 31.


Last night I went to bed at 10:45, fell asleep quickly, woke up at 6:15 and got up at 6:45.


My back has been feeling pretty good in the mornings now, so I guess the Swanson Marigold flower extract pills are working.  It felt a little better after taking them for the first few days and it took about 4 weeks for it to feel much better.


Covid-19 has now surpassed the season flu in deaths this year.  147,508 Covid-19 versus 142,937 for the flu.


China raises their Wuhan death toll by 50 percent.


On the local morning news Ecuador had about 5,000 deaths yesterday, about the same as the US, obviously a much larger country.  It looks like they are really suffering.  Unfortunately, humans often don't change their behavior until it affects them personally.


Trump’s 3-phase guidelines for reopening the economy:

These measures should kick in after states start seeing a decline in cases for 14 days.

Phase One...reopen restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, and places of worship as long as they follow certain guidelines (think: social distancing, disinfecting). And businesses should encourage everyone to still work from home or return to the office in waves, if possible.

Phase Two...reopen schools and daycares. And bring back nonessential travel. This phase would happen once states show evidence that they've had a decrease in cases for a month and there are no signs of a rebound.

Phase Three…This phase looks a lot like the old days. It's when the state's experienced a decrease of cases for six weeks – and people can do all of the above, plus start visiting loved ones in elderly homes and hospitals again.

"We have a massive blindspot because of the lack of testing," Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital told ABC News. "We've not really had a deep understanding of the amount of illness that happened in the community."



The government's $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program ran out of cash. Now, Congress and the Trump admin are heading back to the drawing board to figure out additional funding for the small business loan program.


Yesterday, hundreds gathered to protest their state's stay-at-home order in Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, and Kentucky.



Laura Ingraham tweet: “What other private matters does Dr. Fauci wish to dictate after this crisis is over? Does he believe there should be civil or criminal penalties for handshaking? Or just social shunning? Where are all the civil libertarians and privacy advocates now?”



One of my readers took exception that I didn’t include more on China and WHO’s involvement in detecting the coronavirus. Also, Trump recently claimed that the WHO said the coronavirus was “not communicable” so I added some more details to my timeline.


At 4:40 it started raining, hard, just as Teresa was going to call Antica Pizza to place an order.  She asked me for Gloria’s telephone number.  I replied, “since when do I call Gloria?”  I guess she found the number but it was busy.  The rain soon stopped.


According to today’s Medellin Guru, 35% of Colombia’s population lives in cities or towns without a single coronavirus case.  Using a 60-day rolling average Jeff showed how the number of new cases appears to be going down.  He mentioned that Envigado has 25 cases.  The current quarantine period ends on April 26^th so the next week could determine if, and when, Duque begins opening up the country.  Jeff mentioned that the Health Minister confirmed Duque’s plans to first lift quarantine measures to “recover productive life without social life”.


Teresa finally got through to Gloria and I understood something about no deliveries until next Tuesday and Wednesday.


Texas is among the first states to announce it will loosen stay-at-home restrictions.


I just noticed #QuedateEnCasa scrolling across the upper left corner of my cellphone.



Trump tweet, September 26, 2012: “Obama's complaints about Republicans stopping his agenda are BS since he had full control for two years. He can never take responsibility.”

Trump tweet, October 31, 2013: “Isn't the WORLD tired of hearing President Obama say he knew nothing about anything-time to take responsibility for all of your mistakes!”

Trump tweet, October 15, 2104: “President Obama has a personal responsibility to visit & embrace all people in the US who contract Ebola!”

Trump coronavirus briefing, March 13, 2020: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”



Per the evening news the number of coronavirus cases has increased thus: 1,184 to 1,406 to 1,485 to 1,579 to 1,780 to 2,054 to 2,223 to 2,473 to 2,852 to 2,979 to 3,105 to 3,439 with 146 to 150 to 172 to 183 to 209 to 234 to 239 to 246 to 272 to 289 to 30x to 324 in Antioquia.  Bogota has the most cases with 587 to 695 to 725 to 779 to 861 to 992 to 1,029 to 1,121 to 1,205 to 1,242 to 1,291 to 1,396.  A total of 46 to 50 to 55 to 69 to 80 to 112 to 127 to 131 to 153 have died.

Today they had no breakdown by age.


Joke of the day

A man awoke one evening to discover prowlers in his storage shed.

He immediately called 911, gave his address, to report the prowlers and possible burglary.

The operator at the other end said: "Are they in your house?"

He said they were not, only in his storage shed in back of the house.

The operator said there were no cars available at that time.

He thanked the operator, hung up the phone and counted to 30 and called again.

"I just called you about prowlers in my storage shed. Well, you do not have to worry, as I just shot them all dead!"

Within seconds there were three police cars, an ambulance and fire engine at the scene.

After capturing the prowlers red-handed, the policeman asked the caller, "I thought you said you had shot them all!"

The man answered, "I thought you said there were no police available!"