Coronavirus daily update: Tuesday, March 2

Politics for schoolkids!

Here are the broad strokes: The GOP-heavy NC Senate passes a bill requiring all school districts in the state — there are 115 of them — to offer some form of in-person learning. Many of them already were doing this in early February, when the bill was initially filed, and even more were doing so by late February, when it passed. Gov. Cooper vetoed it, saying that the policies did not comply with CDC guidelines, and that school districts should be able to make their own calls.

Today, the Senate did not get enough votes to override the veto. Winston-Salem’s Sen. Paul Lowe was one of the defectors who initially voted for the bill, but then supported Cooper’s play.

Sometimes I think everything has changed in the past year. Sometimes I think nothing has. The numbers, though, change every day.

The numbers

• We are counting this shit down! With 1,239 new cases in NC, how long before we get back into triple digits? I say by the end of the month. And 29 new deaths (11,288) which is pretty low.
  • The county alert system, which has not been updated since Feb. 22, still lists 27 counties as “red,” or critical in terms of COVID-19 spread. None of them are Guilford (orange) or Forsyth (yellow).
  • 5.7 percent positive test rate, trending down.
  • 8.2 percent have been fully vaccinated (+.2 percent), 855,681 people.
• Guilford County has 100 new cases, 73 in the hospital, 1,350 active cases.
• 47 new cases in Forsyth. No hospitalization numbers. No new recovery numbers. C’mon.

A diversion

“MASH” was a huge show, so popular it lasted longer than the actual Korean War during which it took place. It was one the first to have a big series finale, now practically de rigeur for any serious TV show, and a lot of people has trouble letting it go. So they kept it going! “AfterMASH” was a bad idea in the way most spinoffs are a bad idea, “The Ropers” notwithstanding. Here’s the pilot so you can see why for yourself.

Program notes

• A few weeks ago, I decided to include art that has more of a vertical position as opposed to just the horizontal ones. This allows me to include great works like this, “The Matador,” from Edouard Manet in 1866. Thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
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