The heat intensifies – Previously made travel plans – A new phishing scam – Chuck Woolery learns about the virus’ reality the hard way – Bolsonaro tests positive again – Evening statistics
The tropical temperatures and humidity have returned with a vengeance. It was over 95 degrees outside today – at times the thermometer hovered close to 100. Even when breezes blew across the paths they felt like oven blasts. I was on the Potomac Heritage Trail in the Algonkian area, but I had to cut the hike short at 8 miles total. I risked getting seriously dehydrated if I continued much longer. Interestingly, wildlife was quite active: many butterflies were fluttering among the trees and bushes, and I even saw a pair of goldfinches, the first ones that I have seen all year. And the skies continue to remain less hazy than they normally are at this time of year. But it was oppressive outside all the same, and the forecast indicates that it will remain so until Thursday at the earliest, when we will get a small amount of rain and some modification of the heat.
The trip planned earlier to go to Estes and to spend about a week hiking Rocky Mountain National Park has been canceled. It is not a surprise, of course. Travel remains too uncertain in view of the ever-spiraling number of cases. So this means all of the travel plans that I had made earlier in the year have come to nothing. I had anticipated as much even as early as March 21st (where I list the trips in my entry for that day).
There is a curious scam going around. I get repeated messages like the following in my Inbox: “Just reaching out to say hello. Hope you are doing well and surviving the scourge, Please I have a request to ask you.” They emanate, of course, from people whose names are completely unfamiliar to me, but they do seem to have valid comcast.net Email addresses. It was only a matter of time before the scammers would start using the coronavirus as the basis for their frauds. The Email is obviously some sort of phishing scheme, but since it does not have a link to click on I have no idea of how it works. Nor am I going to respond in order to find out.
Chuck Woolery – that very same game show host whose tweets President Trump touted as a counter to the warnings from Dr. Fauci – has deleted the Twitter account in which he claims everyone is lying about the virus after he received the news that one of his sons contracted it. In the meantime President Bolsonaro of Brazil has tested positive for the virus for the second time this past Wednesday. One is tempted to conclude that the coronavirus has a sense of irony, but after all such results may be merely cause-and-effect: those who deny the existence or the severity of the virus are likely to be more careless in their efforts to avoid contracting it. Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 14,174,332; # of deaths worldwide: 598,419; # of cases U.S.: 3,764,961 # of deaths U.S.: 141,949. The case count has taken only five days to increase by one million. Today’s increase alone exceeded 230,000 and the daily increase will probably reach a quarter of a million soon. The U.S. case count increase today was nearly 70,000. More than 11,000 of these were in Florida alone – and, sadly, that is an improvement. The U.S. accounts for well over a third% of the cases still active worldwide. One slightly encouraging figure is that the mortality rate has gone down a little – a very little; it is now about 3.7%. The virus is becoming more intense in South Africa, whose total has shot up past Chile’s. In the next day or so it will exceed Peru’s as well and be exceeded only by the case counts of U.S., Brazil, India, and Russia. Saudi Arabia’s case count is also expanding rapidly; it has now overtaken Italy’s