The Coronavirus Continuation

Well, the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 is still a thing.

You might be a bit confused to think this as it seems we may have moved on. 

The death toll is still climbing with over 102,000 dead in the United States from COVID-19 as I write this.   

The push to get the economy back up and running is outstripping our ability to contain the spread of the virus. 

In North Carolina where I live, restrictions have been eased to allow some restaurants to open some options for inside dining. So far, no one in my family is anxious to avail themselves of these options. It's still take out, curbside and delivery for us.  

Meanwhile, it looks my state has lost out on hosting the Republican convention here in August after Gov. Cooper would not commit that Donald Trump could have tens of thousands of screaming admirers in one place.  

Well, good riddance to that bad rubbish. 

Trump is pushing hard on putting the pandemic in the review mirror as quickly as possible since he still clings to the idea that a strong, functioning economy is his guarantee to victory in November. 

We can but hope that the debacle of Trump's incompetence in the early days of the pandemic will not be forgotten.  The odds of the economy rebounding quickly from the ravages of the pandemic lockdowns are slim. And those odds grow slimmer still if COVID-19 is still spreading, making more Americans sick or dead.  

And American society, already roiled by the coronavirus and the subsequent lock downs, is being stretched to its breaking point as we face protests over systems inequality and justice for all our citizens.   

It is a tense situation that Trump and his cronies are only making worse by repeated calls for overwhelming force to be used by the police and the military to quell these protests, all in the name of quelling looting and rioting even in protests where there is not looting or rioting. 

Meanwhile, the pandemic is still a thing.