The View from the Hermitage, Day 23

Snippets of what's going on right now:

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care. They say his condition has worsened but he is not on a ventilator. He first went to hospital Sunday when his symptoms "worsened." This reminds me of Donald Trump's Saturday trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to "begin portions of his routine annual physical exam." Unscheduled? On a Saturday? Johnson's going to hospital on a Sunday evening suggests that "worsened" may be more extreme than one might think.

I know multiple quilters or sewists who are making cloth masks or surgical caps for whoever needs or wants them. One woman in my quilt guild has made over 200 masks and has “orders” for over 100 more. She and her daughter basically assembly line the things. The daughter cuts out the fabric and folds and pins the pleats while the mom does the actual sewing. I will admit that I suffered a minute or two of guilt pains telling myself that I should be making masks or caps rather than quilting a quilt that I first conceived more than five years ago. Then I remembered what the masks I made for the family looked like, and I know people are better off without any masks I might make. 

President Trump has been promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for covid-19 despite the lack of testing it has undergone in terms of the current coronavirus. One such test, in Sweden, was halted after the drug's side effects were too severe. I looked at hydroxychloroquine years ago  as an anti-malarial for a trip to Cambodia. My primary care doc warned me against using it. At the time, I was having regular migraines, and the doc was worried about neurological side effects. Needless to say, I went for a different anti-malarial, and I would not want the drug were I to have covid-19, even as a last resort.

Turkmenistan, one of the countries we would have visited on our cancelled Silk Road trip, so far reports no coronavirus cases. The autocrat (aka dictator) running things has also banned use of the word "coronavirus." That's one place I would not want to be theses days. There are actually lots of places I would not want to be, but Turkmenistan would be near the top of the list.

And so the days somewhat run together. The numbers go higher each day, expressed with the caution that there are many cases and deaths not counted. Reports come from other countries; some are viewed as more truthful than others. Each day there are reports of, usually, elderly people of note (musicians, actors, authors, and the like) who have passed due to complications from covid-19. Each day I wonder more and more just where this is going and how it might end. The trite answer is that we shall see.

And as I close this, the BBC reports Boris Johnson is "stable in hospital and not on ventilator."