It's the new normal. The front page of The Washington Post is back to being all the pandemic all the time. There, and in online news, the big discussion is when to reopen the country. Evidently the President will name a new, smaller task force charged with looking into the options. Its membership will, or so it is said, include his daughter. It is not clear to me why she would have particular expertise in considering the economic side of the issue. I seem to recall her fashion line or business was not a huge success. But it's the President's task force and not mine, so I have no say in the matter.
Easter 2020's being in the past after tomorrow has made May 1 the date of interest for the economic reboot. That's two-and-a-half weeks away, and I really don't think enough will have changed by then to justify it. New York's curve may have flattened, but I expect other cities and even some rural areas will still be on the up-slopes of their own curves then. I hear mention that some states or locations could open up before others, but that doesn't seem feasible. Inter-state business, commerce, or just travel between an open state and a still-closed one could be difficult. And let's not even consider sports.
My money is on sometime in the fall even if it means the cancellation of the early October Fall Fiber Festival at which I annually work for fiber. Older son says that Anthony Fauci has said it could be November before things settle down. And if it's not prudent to open things back up before there is a vaccine to combat the virus, we are likely looking at 12 to 18 months. I have no business or economics background, but I find it hard to believe we could go that long without getting people back to work. Even with Andrew Yang's $1,000 per month universal basic income, a person wouldn't be able to afford necessities such as lodging, food, or clothing, let alone health care in a time of a continuing pandemic.
I cannot think of anyone I know personally who is out of work due to the coronavirus, but that does not mean I won't think of someone as soon as I hit the "Publish" button. I did learn of a second covid-19 case with two degrees of separation from me, the son of a woman I knew back when the sons were in high school. While the first second-degree person I knew of, an elderly woman, died, the one I just learned of, in his thirties, recovered.
And so the new normal continues. I fight intermittent feelings of guilt because I am not making masks as other quilters are and because I am lucky enough to be able to self-isolate so totally. Between various media outlets online, TV, or paper, I can stay informed even though the news is often not very good at all. I can read (currently The Presidents of War by Michael Beschloss), quilt (I can't describe what is currently in progress for fear of tipping off the eventual recipient), write (so far just this blog) in addition to the daily necessaries such as laundry, cooking, working out, and pet care (hail Lassa! / hail Khorne the Blood God).
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