According to Johns Hopkins just now, we're at 94,729 deaths in the US as of this morning. USA fatalities from the 1968 flu pandemic are always listed as "about 100,000." We'll probably pass that number this weekend.

Week after week of this, and still waiting to be persuaded by somebody, anybody, about the righteousness of the lockdown.

America doesn't want to send soldiers overseas anymore, which is a topic that was very big here until recently.

People take individual human life much more seriously than they did when I was in fifth grade. There are memories for the VietNam war, the national party conventions, JFK & MLK, and the release of Hey Jude & the White Album… But nothing for the Hong Kong flu at all.

Refresh my memory. What is Hong Kong flu?

And, as it happens, starting in mid-April, the deaths started dropping by 2,000 every week. But...that stopped at the beginning of May. That is, there were 10,000 deaths in the first 7 days of May, then another 10,000 by the 14th, and another 10,000 by the 21st, when we reached 96,000, according to Worldometers. I can't imagine what the death rate would have been without the lockdown. Especially since neither little kids or adults are conscientious about sneezing into their elbows.

Btw, months before the crisis, there was a middle-aged library patron in my neighborhood who seemed to have a constant case of hay fever - or colds. At any rate, he frequently sneezed loudly, and the librarians asked him at least once to stay away, since he used the computers a lot. The computers were probably the ONLY reason he came to the library.

Speaking of the White Album, you MUST check this out:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PpR0Vm74Jdg&list=RDRlVzK-XJyCk&index=11

Comedian and voice actor Paul F. Tompkins reads aloud a one-star review of that, plus one of "Pet Sounds" and the Rolling Stones. Quite short.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcbl79L6KIQ

Another White Album review, plus Shakespeare and "Little Women."

Keegan-Michael Key reads reviews of "Hop on Pop," "Green Eggs and Ham," and "The Art of War."

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jDU3qD57bSc

Tompkins reads reviews of "The Grapes of Wrath," "The Hobbit," and "Goodnight Moon."

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kFlCC5B7r8M

Comedian Jim Gaffigan reads reviews of the book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

Plus a review of "The Raven."

Plus reviews of the movies "Lawrence of Arabia" and "A Clockwork Orange."

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SSQ48wPprBE

Tompkins and others read reviews of tourist destinations, such as the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Taj Mahal, & Machu Picchu.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N8tEX1zMFa8

> Refresh my memory.

Okay, but I feel kind of ghoulish— Wiki says

"The Hong Kong flu (also known as 1968 flu pandemic[1]) was a flu pandemic whose outbreak in 1968 and 1969 killed an estimated one to four[2] million people globally."

And then there was the Asian Flu in 1957-1958, which killed about 2 million.

Offhand, I don't see anything about lockdowns, in either case, before they were able to make the vaccines available.

Maybe we DO care a lot more about human lives, now? Especially since old people make up a larger percentage of the population than they used to - and they vote?

• This woman's young and pretty, but "tie me up" jokes are all too obvious.

• Okay, this is fascinating. It makes the synchronized menses of coed roomates (now discredited anyway) seem like the mildest coincidence.

And then there was the Asian Flu in 1957-1958, which killed about 2 million.

Offhand, I don't see anything about lockdowns, in either case, before they were able to make the vaccines available.

Maybe we DO care a lot more about human lives, now? Especially since old people make up a larger percentage of the population than they used to - and they vote?

Lenona at May 22, 2020 1:41 PM

What good does a *lockdown* do when you send Covid infected patients to nursing homes?

> Maybe we DO care a lot more about
> human lives, now? Especially since
> old people make up a larger percentage
> of the population than they used to -
> and they vote?

That is a seriously tantalizing pair of sentences. Yes I think we take all kinds of statistical death more seriously than we used to. Drunk driving is way down across my lifetime, as is gun death since my childhood (at least until Ferguson).

And the political implications of the tendency of the elderly to actually show up might be profound. Here's a tweet from McArdle:

The worst hot take of the hour is that probably the folks who will die of covid19 were all inches from death so there's no actual increase in mortality. Average life expectancy at age 80 is 8-10 years; at 90, it's still 4-5 years.

Because I think you're right, I can't believe for a moment that Biden will be the nominee.

But if he is—

As of yesterday, all the in-the-know kids agreed that Klobuchar had a lock on the veep spot. Events turn on a dime! As of dusk on the East Coast, I'd bet it will almost certainly be Harris.)\

95,823 deaths US (Johns Hopkins

Christ… We could get there before midnight.

Because I think you're right, I can't believe for a moment that Biden will be the nominee.

But if he is—

~ Crid at May 22, 2020 2:21 PM

It seems that he will be the nominee. And take his word for it, Joe Biden is going to beat Joe Biden.

As of dusk on the East Coast, I'd bet it will almost certainly be Harris.)\ ~ Crid at May 22, 2020 2:21 PM

That opens up a whole new can of worms as Harris savaged Biden in the debates. Her words will be turned against him in the election campaign. I'd look for her to be his publicly-announced choice for Attorney General (unless Tulsi's savaging of Kamala's record as San Francisco DA and California Attorney General makes her a liability in that department).

• Covid discretion & Iphones.

• Hemoglobin levels by smartphone.

Just a shout out to Biden for his honesty regarding what's required for a black person to be black enough for him.

Nice one, Joe. Well done.

> Well done.

"Ain't" was an especially deft touch. It takes a lifetime of mastery to offer a flourish like that in real time.

95,972 as of an hour ago… That's twelve hundred in twelve hours.

• Gog, Riley concurs with you, in the authentic, lilting patois of wuteverthefuck.....

• 9:00PM Pst, 96,001 deaths US