Coronavirus daily update: Monday, Feb. 15

A turning of the tide

I’m sitting here waiting on the Richard Burr verdict so I can write an editorial about it. Remember, the NC GOP called an emergency meeting to censure one of the last honorable Republicans in the Senate, payback for voting to impeach the former President after Trump unleashed a mob intent on subverting democracy and murdering some members of Congress.

I think the NC GOP has made a miscalculation in their reading of the political, tea leaves. But then, I have to see how they vote before I can move on with my thesis.

On the ground, we’re deep into our vaccination campaign in NC, issuing more per day that we are reporting new cases. Things are getting better. But we’re not there yet.

The numbers

• NC reports 2,458 new cases today, the lowest number of the year; 824,352 total and I’m starting to believe that it’s possible that we won’t see a million cases in our state.
  • 10,501 total deaths, trending down.
  • New recovery numbers: 765,456. That makes 48,395 active cases, give or take.
  • 7.7 percent positive test rate, but that’s on a very low raw umber of tests — 27,553. We’ve done as many as 80,000 per day this year.
  • 487,702 have had both doses of the vaccination; 1,129,323 are awaiting their second dose.
• Guilford County has added 415 new cases today. Shitty. That’s like 17 percent of the total.
  • Nine new deaths today (473); 4,398 active cases.
• Forsyth still got bad COVID-case reporting: 30,539 total (116 today), and 319 deaths. No recovery reporting since Jan. 23.
  • But they got good vaccine reporting: 5,886 have had both doses, 13,854 have had just one.

A diversion

In 1967, Ernie Terrell was heavyweight champ of the WBA. But Muhammad Ali was the Heavyweight Champion of the World, disputed only by this particular title — the WBA had stripped Ali of this title after he joined the Nation of Islam in 1966. Boxing is weird and arcane. Ali had changed his name from Cassius Clay just three years earlier, and Terrell kept calling him by his dead name, instigating an argument before the fight itself began. Ali was in his prime, fast and beautiful. But he also laid a poretty violent beating on Terrell this night in Houston.

Program notes

• “The Storm” was Pierre-Auguste Cot’s racy contribution to the Salon of 1880, commissioned by New York swell Catharine Lorillard Wolfe. Thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
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