Afternoon statistics – Hiking in Pennsylvania – Factors that increase risk – Brett Crozier commits the unforgivable offense of placing the safety of his men over Trump’s reputation – Medical supplies from Russia
Today’s statistics as of 4:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 1,011,490; # of deaths worldwide: 52,863; # of cases U.S.: 242,182; # of deaths U.S.: 5,850. At this point we have broken several milestones, which most of us would have preferred to have remained intact: the number of cases exceeds one million; the number of deaths exceeds fifty thousand; the number of cases in the U.S. exceeds two hundred thousand.
Virginia has 1,706 cases and 41 deaths; of these, Fairfax County has 328 cases and 5 deaths. So it is coming close to home.
I went hiking on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania today: 18 ½ miles, with about 3000 feet elevation gain. (For those who wish to follow the route, I parked at the Rte. 225 parking area and did a there-and-back to the west end of the Clarke’s Ferry bridge over the Susquehanna. This is about 15½ miles round trip, but on the way back I took the Susquehanna Trail to ascend the ridge and rejoin the AT, which cut off a mile. When I reached the parking lot I went 2 miles in the other direction to the Table Rock overlook and then returned.) Strictly speaking, I was in compliance with the stay-at-home order, which does allow people to get outside for exercise, but undoubtedly I was obeying the letter of the law rather than the spirit; I doubt if the Virginia governor would approve of my driving 2 ½ hours for this purpose. I also was not obeying the recommendations of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, but I rationalized that I was on a rather obscure part of the trail, not much used by other hikers. And indeed I encountered very few on this segment, although, interestingly, some cars were pulling into the parking area just as I was leaving. There is no question, however, that hiking up a steep ascent is an excellent way of maintaining one’s health. I had started from Rte. 225 and as I went towards the bridge I was feeling a bit headachy and flagging in energy, but once I reversed direction and went up via the Susquehanna Trail I immediately felt much better.
On the radio I heard a piece of news that was, from a purely selfish point of view, quite encouraging. Over three-fourths of the fatalities occurred among people with underlying conditions such as diabetes, asthma, heart trouble, etc. I don’t have any of these, so I am relatively low-risk, despite my age. On the other hand, 20% of the people who contracted the virus are under 40, so I must not get over-confident.
Donald Trump has been tested a second time for coronavirus but it did not turn out happily. He tested negative.
Captain Brett Crozier has been relieved of his command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. And what was his offense? He made an appeal for the removal of the (roughly) forty-eight hundred crew members on the carrier because several tested positive for the virus and pleaded for them to receive medical attention. That was bad publicity, you see, and of course we mustn’t have that. Silly man – doesn’t he know that our President values his image far more than several thousand lives?
Russia has delivered several medical supplies to the U.S. and to New York in particular, where the medical facilities are very glad to get them. There seems to be little chance of their getting adequate resources from the current administration.