The Corona Virus March 20, 2020

There are currently 19,068 reported cases in the US and 240 reported deaths. That's an increase of 5,660 cases and 59 deaths.

New York has 8,310 cases and 42 deaths.
Washington has 1,524 cases and 83 deaths.
California has 1,169 cases and 20 deaths.

Here in New Jersey we have 890 cases and 11 deaths.

The finally opened the testing center at Bergen Community College today and it was utter bedlam. There were hundreds of cars lined up and being screened for the requirements to be testes, a cough and temperature of at least 99.6 degrees.

I give the folks that were staffing that place, nurses, technicians, police, national guard, all the credit in the world.

Elsewhere New York and California have increased restrictions on travel to essential personnel only. Illinois is expected to follow. Governor Murphy says he's going to "tighten the screws" in New Jersey but hasn't clarified exactly what that means.

The publicity around the packed Florida beaches apparently got to Governor DeSantis and he shut them all down saying "The Party is Over."

I suppose it is possible to embarrass a Republican into doing the right thing. Who'd have thunk it?

The director of the National Institute of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, says there may be as many as 70,000 reported cases by next Friday but would actually be a good thing because it wouldn't mean that the outbreak has exploded but rather that we're finally catching up on the test front.

In the meantime Trump and his Fox News allies are denying they ever said things that we have on video tape that they said.

But it doesn't matter because the GOP under 80 IQ trailer park base is going to believe what they're told. They'll probably claim the video has been faked.

Not being in the middle of this and not being able to DO SOMETHING is driving me crazy. I suppose I'll just have to wash my hands, practice social distancing and stay in my house.