Boris Johnson is out of intensive care though still in hospital. John Prine has died from covid-19 complications. Older son says that New York City will begin reporting suspected covid-19 deaths as well as confirmed ones. More countries have stopped using or testing hydroxychloroquine. Nearly 40 residents of a senior care facility near Richmond have died; fortunately, the local facility in which my mother resides has had no cases. Various predictive models have been updated and become more positive given that more people are observing mitigation measures than was originally thought. And so go the major and not-so-major headlines.
Will the pandemic become old news or smaller headlines as spring passes into summer? It is the lead story and several follow-up stories on the TV news every night. A non-coronavirus story is more common on the front page of The Washington Post now than it was when I started writing these posts, but coronavirus stories still predominate. Will we get or are we getting numb to it? Is it becoming the rule rather than the exception? Will such extensive coverage remind people to maintain distance and other measures needed to slow the spread? Or will people begin to tune it out as same old same old?
One of the countries we were going to visit in May was Turkmenistan. Since Antarctica is not a country, Turkmenistan is the only country in the world not to have any reported cases of covid-19. The why is both funny and not so funny. After reading the explanation of their zero cases, I suggested to the husband that maybe we didn't want to rebook the same tour for 2021. The fact that Turkmenistan won't report cases now makes it possible there could still be some into next year. I'm more comfortable waiting a longer while before doing that tour.
And so continues life in the hermitage. No deep thinking, no rush to learn the latest, no resentment at not being able to be out and about. Life in the bubble ain't half bad.
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