Coronavirus daily update: Friday, May 29

Black lives matter

We’re reeling from the violent death of yet another black man, George Floyd, at the hands of police, and pointing out the inconsistencies between protestors in Minneapolis, who were tear-gassed and assailed with rubber bullets — and those guys in Michigan who marched into the capitol building with guns.

We’re thinking about Colin Kaepernick, whose NFL career ended after his silent, kneeling protest against police brutality; and Marcus Smith, who died on a Greensboro street in front of the police officers who hog-tied him; and our state’s seven new black sheriffs, elected in 2018 largely on the promise that black lives matter, and our black police chiefs in Greensboro and Winston-Salem.

And just like that, we’re right back where we were two years ago, except a lot more of us are out of work, many are getting sick and everyone is under the kind of pressure only a global pandemic can bring about.

Oh, and our president says he’s going to cancel social media, or something, because he’s mad at Twitter for censoring his irresponsible and inaccurate tweets.

He also pulled the United States out of the World Health Organization, which seems like terrible timing. You know, global pandemic and all.

Oh, and a “troop of monkeys” swarmed a medical facility in India and stole vials of blood from patients who had tested positive for coronavirus.

You sure you can handle any more news?

Some (more) news

• An employee at the Porch Kitchen & Cantina in Winston-Salem has tested positive for COVID-19, owner Claire Calvin reported on the restaurant’s Facebook page. “We are devastated and concerned for the employee and their family. We are also concerned for our staff as a whole, and out of an abundance of caution and the desire to protect the staff, their families and the community at large, we are going to close our doors and ask our staff to self-quarantine and monitor for symptoms.”
• Gov. Roy Cooper has not signed the new bill that would allow bars to open. He will either sign it (doubtful) or veto it (maybe), in which case it can be overridden in the General Assembly. Or the bill can just languish a few weeks until matters of safety and political reality are more closely aligned.
• The governor responded to the Republican National Committee regarding the 2020 convention, set for Charlotte in August.

The numbers

• Today is the day Forsyth County surpassed Guilford in total cases. Forsyth added 47 more diagnoses today, for 1,207. At least 95 have recovered, and two more have died, making 11 total.
• Guilford registers 22 new cases for an adjusted total of 1,195. There have been 635 recoveries and 65 deaths, which includes nine new ones today.
• The trends are carried across the state. North Carolina added 1,076 total cases today, the second-most ever — 1,107, just six days ago. But these were found on 15,704 tests, the biggest one-day total ever.
  • You know I did the math: 6.85 percent.
• Forsyth and Guilford are among five counties in the state with more than 1,000 diagnoses, along with Mecklenberg (3,837), Durham (1,441), Wake (1,613) and Wayne (1,088).

A diversion

You can’t talk about classic television, I don’t think, without mentioning “The Gong Show.” It was kind of like “American’s Got Talent,” except there was a gong. Host Chuck Barris — who later claimed that he was a deep-cover CIA operative — and a crew of celebrities — usually Jamie Farr, JP Morgan and somebody else — endured the likes of Mean Gene the Dancing Machine and other bizarre slices of humanity. I found the very first episode on YouTube, from June 14, 1976. Enjoy.

Program notes

• From the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s public-domain collection, tonight we’ve got “Leisure Time in an Elegant Setting,” by Pieter de Hooch, 1663-65.
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