The View from the Hermitage, Day 21

The husband, older son, and I took the family dog to the park again. She does love her weekly car-car rides. I pointed out that even though the park would likely not be very crowded, we would be out in public and should wear masks. Older son and I had one of those Homer Simpson "doh!" moments after getting out of the car with our travel mugs of coffee in one hand. It's not that easy to drink coffee as one walks while being masked. None of the people we saw there were wearing masks. They did not look askance at our masks, though. Except for a few folks jogging, everyone we saw was practicing social distancing.

In other news of the day, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital since his covid-19 symptoms have not improved in the ten days since he was diagnosed. While I certainly don't want it to happen, would his death serve as a slap on the face of other world leaders who might still be downplaying the ferocity of SARS-CoV-2? How many degrees of separation might be required to wake some people up?

Staying on the other side of the pond, the Queen gave a short talk. "Speech" seems too formal a word since it was more analogous to FDR's fireside chats than a state of the union address. It was short and sweet and made some very good points. She's a tough old broad, that queen. When the husband learned there was a talk scheduled, he worried that perhaps Prince Philip had died in the last couple of days, and the talk was for the Queen to break the news to the country. I'm glad it was a pep talk instead of a death notice.

Finally, The New York Times ran an article on something I have been pondering recently, that is, how many deaths in February or early March may have been due to undiagnosed covid-19. Some covid-19-related deaths early on might have been misdiagnosed as influenza or pneumonia. An accurate count of deaths can better convey to the public the seriousness of an outbreak. It can also assist in the allocation of needed resources, for example, making sure the correct number of ventilators goes to the hospitals that need them.

Not a terribly exciting day news-wise, but at this point in time, that's what we should hope for.