Uneventfulness is in the eye of the beholder – Tentative plans for travel to New York – The virus continues to spiral – Evening statistics
One day Louis XVI returned to Versailles from his hunting and wrote the following entry in his journal – “July 14: Nothing.” Shortly afterwards one of his courtiers arrived from Paris to inform him that the Bastille had fallen. So even though it was an uneventful day for me I mustn’t assume that that is the case for the nation at large. Still, today’s entry will be relatively brief.
Currently I’m investigating whether I can try to get to New York for a visit to my aunt at the end of the month. She will have a significant birthday at the end of the month, with no one to celebrate it; my cousins either live in areas from where they would not be allowed to travel to New York without quarantining, or have recently been afflicted with the virus and are still wary of social interactions. It would not be necessary for me to quarantine since I would be coming from Virginia; the question is how to travel there. Train, airplane, and car all have their respective disadvantages; driving is probably the safest in terms of avoiding infection but there is the question of where to store the car once I get there. I will try to come to some sort of arrangement this week.
It has been a significant day in one respect; our national case count has passed the three-million mark. It is true that the rate of new cases has declined slightly in the last few days – less than 50,000 both today and yesterday, but it is not a very steep decline nor one that has as yet lasted very long. California, Texas, and Florida account for over 40% of the new cases. It does appear that our mortality rate is declining. At this point it is about 4.3%. The global average is about 4.6%, so we are doing slightly better than average – but not breathtakingly so. At this point 40 states are seeing increases in the rate of new cases. Our President, of course, continues to brush aside the virus as being insignificant; but this persistent ostrich-like behavior is so familiar to us by now that it no longer counts as news.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 11,731,582; # of deaths worldwide: 540,031; # of cases U.S.: 3,039,647; # of deaths U.S.: 132,952.