The horizon is not so far as we can see, but as far as we can imagine

May 1st US Covid Data

A little delayed, but here it is.


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Open Thread

8 Comments

  1. Stirling S Newberry

    “Madeline Kripke, Doyenne of Dictionaries, Is Dead at 76”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/nyregion/madeline-kripke-dead-coronavirus.html

    Another one we have lost.

  2. Ché Pasa

    Most of those giving up their lives to the virus are like everyone else, ordinary working class schlubs But it’s hard to say that most of those in the NYT Dead List are anything but Elites. They are mostly old though, no doubt infirm, and I imagine many could no longer take care of themselves.

    Sacrificing the old and weak has become a meme during the pandemic. Nursing homes, assisted living, and other old people congregate facilities have become routine hotspots for the virus to spread, and death seems to lurk around every corner. How frightening and awful for the residents, many of whom probably can’t escape.

    The hard-hearted in need of a root-job say “let them die.” They’ve lived too long anyway. Best not to have them troubling us, right? No matter who they once were.

  3. highrpm

    @cp,
    “hard hearted.” every worked as a cna in one of these mills? if there is blame to afix — why?! — the ones who assign their kins to such places are the most likely targets. still, the hotspots serve well to many, the poor inhabitants and the poorer workers. assign the sjw dems and dim joe and wrinkled nancy to fix the problem. on second thought, seeing they’re lots better at floor vote sellouts, their not up to task. (who’s up to admin’ing a mass march on the hollyworlds?)

  4. Stirling S Newberry

    Many on the list are young, that is part of the point. For example https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/obituaries/kimarlee-nguyen-dead-coronavirus.html

    They thought too quickly or felt too much. Many of the old were part of an age, which like all other ages before, is passing. This is just the period on an old typewriter with a tuple just finished, wheezing out the line the had for the last day.

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/04/the-man-who-thought-too-fast

  5. Stirling S Newberry

    One more thought: I just fired to one of my lists Ludwig Wittgenstein hardcover of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Now if you fire one to a list, Amazon gives you suggestions. In this case, the were all by Popper – the conservative wannabe-enemy. There were real enemies – T.S. Eliot comes instantly to mind – but Popper is like Ayn Rand: trivial.

    Amazon is run by average people, which makes sense. It is also good for a laugh.

  6. Ché Pasa

    The death rate among the old who get the virus is spectacular, nothing like it in living memory is there?

    I think the point of the Times article is, among other things, that a lot of the dead, whatever their age, but yes, among the dead oldsters, are some remarkable, and yes, elite people. Notable artists, scientists, engineers, community and government leaders, founders of companies and organizations, religious leaders, and on and on. Generations are passing from our midst.

    Life is transitory, but this level of loss so quickly is unparalleled outside of shooting wars. Some people believe sincerely that it’s a good thing. The more loss of the olds and the poors and the generations that have screwed things up so badly, the better. But the Times, among others, is trying to tell us the dead don’t fit the neat categories of who is disposable — or culpable.

    Ultimately, the losses are incalculable. And it won’t be our generation that figures out just how bad it is.

    Among the old, 15-30% or more of those who get the virus will die often horrible and lonely deaths, and the facilities in which many of them are housed are breeding grounds and spreading centers (just like prisons and jails). The infection is almost uncontrolled within them. Staff is almost as vulnerable as the residents, and little is done to protect them. And so it will go until the epidemic ends.

  7. KT Chong

    A potential new mutation of coronavirus that could be fatal to children:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIuIroDcvio

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