Daily corona round-up

Plague rats, doorknob-lickers and superspreaders

Apparently the message is not getting across, so forgive me if I’m being repetitive, but I really must draw everyone’s attention to the skyrocketing coronavirus numbers in North Carolina and elsewhere. We suck at this, and it’s possible we’re getting even worse. This report from the Center for Public Integrity sort-of confirms it:

“If you are under 40, you need to assume you became infected during the Thanksgiving period if you gathered beyond your immediate household. … [Y]ou are dangerous to others and must isolate away form anyone at increased risk for severe disease and get tested immediately.”

The numbers

  • It’s been a brutal weekend, with more than 6,000 new cases on Saturday and Sunday in North Carolina. 4,372 today, which just a couple weeks ago was an astoundingly high number. Not now. 373,684 total, 5,560 deaths (1.49 percent).
    • 341,041 recoveries (91.26 percent). Roughly 27,083 current cases, 2,240 hospitalized (8.06 percent), the most yet.
    • 10.5 positive test rate, rising.
  • How about Guilford County? Whelp, they’ve got 308 new cases today. A lot. 15,795 total, 247 deaths (+0, 1.56 percent).
    • Graphic says 768 recoveries, which I know is wrong; on Friday there were 14,205. 1,168 active cases, 174 hospitalized (14.9 percent)
    • 8.3 percent positive test rate last 14 days.
  • Forsyth County? Glad you asked: 190 new cases just today, 14,919 total, with 173 deaths (1.16 percent).
    • 12,074 recoveries (85.2 percent), 2,672 active cases.

A diversion

Flash Gordon has been around for more than 100 years, with a swashbuckling vision of the future that ran through newspaper comic strips, radio serials, film reels, television and a sweet movie in 1980, where Flash was the quarterback for the NY Jets. Here’s an overlooked animated film from 1979, billed as “The Greatest Adventure of All.” Hyperbole? No way.

Program notes

  • “Saints Peter and John Healing the Lame Man” is a painting by Nicolas Poussin from 1655, and not a plan to deal with the coronavirus. Thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
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