Good Monday morning. I hope everyone had a good weekend. I did. I worked a bit on my WIP, then did some coloring and quilting. This is a panel for the quilt I’m making for my granddaughter.
The center piece is from one of her t-shirts, and the two side pieces I made from material with patterns related to Harry Potter that I bought. The center piece is bigger than any of the other t-shirts, so this will be the focal point of the quilt. I wish the side pieces were big enough that you could read the newspaper. LOL
I wasn’t planning to do a Monday blog this week. I’d rather be working some more on the quilt, or be coloring in some new books I just got, but then I saw how the number of cases of COVID 19 keeps growing, especially in the U.S. While checking out some news stories related to that, I came across this article in The Atlantic by Yascha Mounk
Mounk states that he was hoping to write a story with a different focus, a more positive focus, but things have changed so dramatically in the two weeks he’s been working on the piece, the news is not so positive.
Like Mounk, I was hoping for good news at this point, too. Remember back in March and April when we thought we’d all be safe by June?
Well here we are folks, and we are not safe, despite what the White House and some pundits would like us to believe.
It is not safe to gather in large crowds. I pity the folks who plan to attend upcoming political rallies, as well as the GOP national convention, which is so totally not necessary and such a public health risk.
It is not safe to be out dining and dancing, no matter how many “Girls just like to have fun.”
And sadly, it is not safe to be with family, or travel to see family, or embrace when we do see each other.
Mounk is of the opinion that because the pandemic is not a top news priority, pushed aside by the murder of George Floyd and the aftermath of that tragedy, people are no longer as worried about their health as they were three weeks ago. Not that the murder didn’t warrant being front page news. It certainly did. Just as the aftermath of the murder deserves all the coverage it gets. It’s just unfortunate that those issues couldn’t share space on the front pages with the latest about the virus.
Some of the facts worth noting:
A second wave is coming.
The virus is not going away in the heat of the summer.
A vaccine is still months away.
The virus lives the longest in the air. It can linger for hours, especially in enclosed areas.
Older citizens and high-risk individuals need to continue to practice safeguards, that especially means avoiding crowds.
What will happen as more states open is very uncertain. But even if government officials on the local, state, and federal levels don’t require certain safety measures, we can use our own common sense. I urge you to do that.
For more facts about the corona virus visit the Coronavirus Resource Center.
Some quotes from Mounk’s article:
If the virus wins, it is because the World Health Organization downplayed the threat for far too long.
If the virus wins, it is because Donald Trump was more interested in hushing up bad news that might hurt the economy than in saving American lives.
If the virus wins, it is because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, created to deal with just this kind of emergency, has proved to be too bureaucratic and incompetent to do its job.
If the virus wins, it is because the White House did not even attempt to put a test-and-trace regime into place at the federal level.
If the virus does win, then, it is because American elites, experts, and institutions have fallen short—and continue to fall short—of the grave responsibility with which they are entrusted in ways too innumerable to list.
That’s all from me for today folks. I hope you have a safe and productive and happy week.