Morning statistics – The upcoming election – Hiking in Sky Meadows – Illness of a fellow-hiker – Suspension of flights from Beijing – Heads of state affected by virus – Evening statistics
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 8,288,344; # of deaths worldwide: 446,690; # of cases U.S.: 2,208,787; # of deaths U.S.: 119,145.
“When one wishes to play the wit, he sometimes wanders a little from the truth.” (Antoine Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince). I have to plead guilty to that myself when I look back at some of the entries I made in this record. Satire, I’m afraid, is rarely altogether honest. Even those motivated by sincere indignation, like Juvenal and Swift, cannot conceal the pleasure they take in their own incisiveness. If the evils they deplored had disappeared, they probably would have found their lives dull and boring. Like Gilbert’s King Gama, they have to have something to grumble at.
In particular, I’m thinking of some of the remarks I’ve made to date about our President. I have made no attempt to conceal my feelings towards this man, for whom I have long conceived a great aversion. Yet I become indignant, all the same, when I hear him compared to Stalin or Hitler. As someone from a family that has lost seven relatives to Hitler’s regime, I feel angered when such comparisons are made so glibly. I certainly find fault with Trump, but it is for his incompetence but not for murderous viciousness. I think it can be said, without animus, that he has failed to meet the demands imposed by the pandemic chiefly on account of his personal insecurities; the perpetual craving for admiration is a running theme throughout all of his actions and every other consideration is subordinated to that end. I do not suppose that he takes pleasure in the increase of illness and death that we have seen over the past several months. I have no doubt that he is as distressed as anyone else by the deplorable results of his administration, is quite puzzled to discover how unsuccessful he has proven to be, and is greatly worried about the effect that the COVID-19 crisis is having on his reputation.
The upcoming election is probably the first of its kind, inasmuch as both parties must be contriving to have each of their candidates to speak for himself as seldom as possible. Neither Biden nor Trump excels as a public speaker. They each, in their different ways, appear simultaneously confused by the responsibilities of their position and arrogant in their assumption of automatic support from various demographic groups. One cannot help contrasting them with their predecessors in this respect. Looking at them from the point of view simply of the image that they projected as speakers (regardless of what they actually did as politicians) – while it is true that the Bushes, both senior and junior, were somewhat too typical of the prep school to inspire much confidence, Reagan conveyed an impression of warmth and geniality, Clinton appeared homespun and down-to-earth, Obama was almost always calm and dignified. Biden and Trump both lack the quality that the Romans called gravitas and this appears true, unfortunately, of the greater part of our contemporary politicians in general.
The tone I take whenever I speak about public life invariably becomes gloomy, particularly in light of how our politicians have been behaving in response to the pandemic. Yet my private life remains remarkably trouble-free. Today, for instance, was very enjoyable indeed. RR, one of my hiking friends, texted me earlier in the week to tell me that she was camping with a few people in Sky Meadows and to ask whether I was interested in meeting them for a hike today. I readily agreed, in spite of the exertions of yesterday. Sky Meadows is less than an hour away from Fairfax and the hike was to occur in the Lost Mountain area, which is less strenuous than the part of the park on the other side of the road. I thus would be able to sleep late and still be able to join the others at the appointed time of 10:00. I felt confident that it would be a good way to wind down from the more arduous hike in Shenandoah National Park yesterday.
And so it proved. It was a delightful hike, despite the overcast skies and threat of rain. We went up Lost Mountain and completed a loop around the east side of Rte. 17, covering some trails I had never seen before, though I have hiked in the park for years. All of the trails in the park are beautifully maintained. The wineberries, which grow in great profusion here, are just beginning to bear fruit; they will be ripe in another week. Afterwards we went to the campground where RR and her friends were staying, and we had a late lunch there. They had some wine left over from their supplies and I was encouraged to drink as much as I could so that they would have less to carry back to their cars. It would have been churlish to refuse, would it not? I was quite surprised, incidentally, to find that the trail from the parking area to the campground is over a mile and that there are no carts or wagons for transport; one has to bring up all supplies on one’s back. Today was the last day of their stay, so I helped with the transport by carrying their tent back to their car. I left the parking area just before the rain began. All in all we covered between 9½ and 10 miles, with perhaps 1000 feet of elevation gain.
There is some distressing news from BL of the Vigorous Hikers. His recent illness turns out not to be the coronavirus after all but pneumonia, and unfortunately it has adversely affected his kidneys. He is in the hospital now, on oxygen. One is in danger of forgetting that the virus has come upon us as an addition to currently existing diseases, not as a substitute; it is by no means the only threat that confronts us.
China has suspended two-thirds of its domestic airline flights out of Beijing. Residents are warned not to leave the city as the efforts to contain the new outbreak redouble. All of which casts doubt upon the figures that it officially releases to the WHO. It is true, however, that the number of cases reported as currently active has been increased to 252, whereas previously this number was below 60.
The virus is affecting heads of state and their new relatives. Juan Orlando Hernández, president of Honduras, and his wife Ana Garcia have tested positive for the virus. Hernández says that his symptoms are mild and that his wife is asymptomatic. Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been hospitalized after testing positive for the virus but is in stable condition. Sophie Trudeau, the First Lady of Canada, tested positive for the virus earlier but isolated herself for two weeks and has recovered. Two weeks ago, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said that he and his entire family got infected with the coronavirus. He said a week afterwards that he has recovered without having had any symptoms.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 8,391,788; # of deaths worldwide: 450,437; # of cases U.S.: 2,233,854; # of deaths U.S.: 119,940.