Coronavirus daily update: Friday, Dec. 18

Cut the crap

What’s with everybody, man? There’s a full-on pandemic raging out there on the streets — though, more literally, in indoor spaces crawling with maskless, selfish dopes — and it’s business as usual out there (everywhere, that is, except restaurants and bars, which are slowly suffocating). I went to two separate post offices yesterday because the first one had WAY too many people in the tiny lobby and two of then were coughing and sneezing. So I split.

The next one was almost as full, but no symptomatic people in the foyer. One gentleman came in without a mask, and a woman in line offered him one from her car.

Positive peer pressure!

And yet I keep seeing news stories like this one. And this one. Which leads me to believe that WAY too many people are out there shedding live-virus droplets like Rip Taylor flinging confetti over his shoulder. The numbers bear this out, with a record-setting day in North Carolina, but first we have other news to cover.

Some news

• Former Guilford County Commissioner Alan Branson has reached the end of the line on his appeal against the results of the 2020 election, which he lost by just 72 votes to Mary Beth Murphy.
  • The difference between a Republican-majority county commission and a Democrat-majority one can be seen in this story about eviction relief in Guilford and Forsyth counties.
• After a pretty major federal drug investigation involving most of the UNC System schools, UNC-Chapel Hill has taken the whacking stick to three fraternities. It’s a huge story, which will be playing out over the next week or so as more information comes out.
  • These kids allegedly moved $1.5 million worth of drugs in like three years using the UNC System as a network. Pretty solid business model, except it was drugs.
• Wake Forest’s football game against Florida State has been canceled due to coronavirus — not our guys, theirs.

The numbers

• How’s this for shitty: 8,444 new cases in NC today. Previous record was 7,540, set seven days ago. We are moving in the wrong direction, which makes me question if everybody understands what is happening. Now stands at 466,104 total, 34,885 of them antigen positive.
  • Antigen positive doesn’t mean you’re immune. Of our state’s 6,125 deaths, 283 of them have been antigen-positive cases.
  • 10.5 positive test rate, which is down, but not great because we’ve greatly increased the amout of testing over the past two days so lower percentage, higher raw number.
• 356 new cases in Guilford County today, making 19,593. Smart money says Guilford cracks 20k tomorrow. No new deaths (278) but 201 hospitalizations. 3,226 active cases.
• Forsyth adds 305 — a lot! — making 17,734; there have been 3,299 cases in the last 14 days. With 197 deaths (+1).

A diversion

I mentioned Rip Taylor a moment ago, and I really wanted to post some of his work. But I’ve already done “The $1.98 Beauty Pageant” and much of his other work is either more recent, losing my interest, or voice-over, which, who cares? SO I found an episode of “The Phyllis Diller Show” from back in the day when people just had shows named after them. Taylor was a regular on the show, but I’m not sure if he’s on this one because I haven’t watched it yet. But John Astin is — father of Hollywood’s Sean Astin. Generational!

Program notes

• “María Teresa Infanta of Spain,” by Velázquez in 1654 or so, depicts the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, who would six years later marry Louis VIV, who was her first cousin. Thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
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