Burke Lake and Lake Mercer – A fortuitous meeting – Testing in West Virginia – Our lost window of opportunity – Effects of school re-openings – Evening statistics
It’s not a good idea to be confined indoors all day long. I was aware of this for the past two days, yet remained inside all the same, discouraged by the seemingly permanent heat. But it rained a good deal this morning and the temperature went down to below 80 degrees. It was still quite humid, of course – muggy, in fact – but at any rate I was not wilting when I went out. I did not wish to drive a great deal, for it was well after noon before the rain was over, so I went on the double loop around Burke Lake and Lake Mercer, which is something between 11 and 12 miles total. It’s a good walk to have in reserve. I have done it many times, and I have referred to it in previous entries. It’s only about a 15-minute drive from my house and, even though the lakes are artificially formed, they are quite scenic. The waterfowl were active today, not surprisingly: ducks, geese, a few loons here and there.
I met my friends PF and DF on the path connecting the two loops. They live even closer to the lakes than I do. I have not seen them since February at least, possibly much earlier. Their daughter (whom I have mentioned before, as being a prominent surgeon) recently married and posted many striking photos of herself and her husband at the ceremony on Facebook. PF told me that there were only ten attendees in all and that most of them quarantined in Snowshoe, WV, where LF (the daughter) owns a property, before the ceremony took place; and thus they were able to sit in close proximity without fear of consequences. Other than that, PF and DF go out very little; they will go out to walk around the lakes, but nowhere else. They do not even go to the grocery stores, preferring to order their food from a local store and have it delivered. I have done my own grocery shopping, but I can understand their point of view: one of my acquaintances earlier this year came down with the virus, a result from, as he deduced by a process of elimination, a visit to a supermarket.
PF also told me that although the hospital where her daughter works do not provide tests for their employees, West Virginia has several facilities where one can get tested for the virus at any time and obtain the results in fifteen minutes. That is quite a contrast to the situation here. When I took a test in preparation for my trip to New York (which later got canceled) I had to hunt for a place that would perform a test for people who had no symptoms and had not associated with people infected by the virus, and I did not receive the results until five days afterwards. It is surprising that testing is so much more difficult to obtain in Virginia, considering that the state governor used to be a physician.
It certainly felt good to get out in temperatures somewhat more moderate than those of the past several weeks. I daresay I shouldn’t wish for cooler weather too ardently, for our nation as a whole is losing its window of opportunity to curb the virus during the summer months. The virus is more active in cooler temperatures and is more contagious indoors than outdoors, so that as winter approaches and people venture outside less, the potential for its spreading increases. It was not so very long ago that getting the rate of infection to slow down seemed to be a genuine possibility. But it was completely spoiled by the premature re-opening of most of the states, along the inability of the majority of Americans to refrain from congregating in crowds at the drop of a hat.
Some of them, of course, are not doing so of their own free will. More than 2,000 students, teachers and staff members across five states have been quarantined after at least 230 positive coronavirus cases were reported just after the schools reopened. There has been a 90% increase of COVID cases among children within the past four weeks. None of them had any choice in the matter. I’ve mentioned the concerns of a friend who teaches in a private school; she and many others are very reluctant to go back to live teaching on account of the risk of infection, but their concerns have been all but brushed aside by the school administrators.
And if all of the above were not enough bad news, I regret to say that there is more to come: Stephanie Meyer has just announced that she will be writing two more books in her Twilight series.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 21,062,471; # of deaths worldwide: 752,580; # of cases U.S.: 5,413,938; # of deaths U.S.: 170,352.