City and suburban walking – National obesity rates – Difficulties confronting nomination ceremonies – Evening statistics
A brief entry for a relatively uneventful day.
Although it was very warm today, at times going up to the mid-80s, it seemed blissfully cool and refreshing in comparison with the temperatures of the past month. I walked mainly on the streets because the dirt trails are still a bit miry from the storms of yesterday. Even now, with many offices open again, traffic is a good less dense than before. Skies remain much less hazy than they usually are at this time of year. People seem a bit more conscientious about wearing face masks at this stage. I’m less worried about getting infected in the open air than I am whenever I enter an office or a store or any other interior, but still I use a face mask for city and suburban excursions outdoors.
Unfortunately the production of a vaccine will not restore matters completely. The development of one looks promising, but if and when it comes out our country will still be hampered in its recovery by another health issue: obesity. Vaccines engineered to protect the public from influenza, hepatitis B, tetanus and rabies are less effective in obese adults than in the general population. Ours is one of the heaviest populations in the world, possibly the heaviest of all. It has been estimated that more than 40% of American adults are obese (defined as being with a body mass index of 30 or more) and 9% are morbidly obese (a BMI of 40 or more).
In the meantime the forthcoming election is undergoing difficulties on both sides. Neither candidate is able to determine a safe place where they can accept their nominations. Trump is considering giving his acceptance speech at the White House on August 27th and Biden has scrapped the plans to accept the Democratic nomination in Milwaukee. Accepting the nomination at the White House may be considered a violation of ethics laws but it is possible that they will be waived under the circumstances; it certainly makes more sense for him to do so there than to hold another rally in the style of recent one in Tulsa. The Democratic Convention in Milwaukee has been in planning for over a year, but again a big rally seems inadvisable and Biden can hardly be faulted for his decision not to risk his supporters’ safety unnecessarily. We will simply have to undergo the process of candidate nominations with less fanfare this year than usual. I can’t see that we will be any the worse for it.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 18,956,424; # of deaths worldwide: 710,036; # of cases U.S.: 4,973,155; # of deaths U.S.: 161,581. Our daily rate of increase is less than it was the previous week, but it is still over 50,000 and our daily death toll was over 1,200. At this point over 1.5% of the national population has been infected by the virus.