20200502 - Corona Virus Part 7

Once again, howdy from our tin can by the sea. Wendy and I have been weathering the self-isolation of the corona virus pretty well. We've made a few trips out in order to restock the pantry and to get some grub from a local take-out, but, in general, we have been in the house. Wen had a virus effect her skin, which had me worrying, but a prescription from the tele-doc has her on the road to recovery. The tele-presence doctor is something that has emerged from the corona virus. Back in February, that service was not offered by many doctors and the general public didn't use it very much. Now, tele-docs are a thing and in a big way. It makes sense - why go to a doctor's office with other sick people, when the doc can assess your ailment with you over the phone? Some things will require a follow-up at the office, but most ailments can be handled without the need for exposure. When I was going for my masters at Troy, one of the software systems that we laid out was a tele-presence doctor service. It included all the HIPAA permissions and exclusions, as well as referral from the primary, and a method to loop in specialists. It was a good sized undertaking in design, but we never built the product.

A cousin of mine started a 30 day challenge on Facebook for songs. I love music, so I've been chiming in, typically with a song from the 60s or 70s that fits the requirements. As a for-instance, yesterday's song was "a song that you like that was covered by another artist." Originally, I chose David Bowie's version of "Dancing in the Streets, " which I remember Van Halen doing as well. Well, the original song was cut by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and it is a very good version. Also, Bowie wasn't alone on his rendition, he preformed a duet with Mick Jagger on that song. All the proceeds from this version of the song went to Live Aid famine relief. These trips down memory lane have me feeling very nostalgic. Last night, I was looking at old "buggy" pictures from CMU in the 70s. I got excited when I saw people wearing CIA (Carnegie Involvement Association) t shirts, just like the one that I had when I swept for them my junior year. I didn't recognize anyone, because I was just a sweeper - getting leaves and trash off of the track before the runs - but it was great to "remember when."

Numbers? Let get to it - Worldwide: 3,422,480 cases with 240,337 deaths; USA: 1,132,038 cases with 65,783 deaths; Florida: 34,728 cases with 1,314 deaths; Pinellas county: 748 cases with 38 deaths. The decade factor is out to 33 days now, with the overall growth rate of COVID-19 cases at 3% day-over-day on a national basis for the US. As a math exercise, I calculated the annual growth rate using the 3% daily growth rate. It works out to an annual growth rate of 4,848,172%. States are starting to open back up, so I'm expecting these numbers to climb a bit in the coming weeks. I had thought about people getting restless and wanting life back to normal, but it seems that the driver is actually taxes. Without sales and income, states and counties aren't receiving the steady stream of revenue that they budgeted for. As a result, they went to the federal government to make up this deficit, and those in power said no, even going so far as to suggest that states declare bankruptcy. The notion of a state declaring bankruptcy is ludicrous. As it stands now, it is illegal by federal bankruptcy laws for a state to declare bankruptcy. Further, bankruptcy as a resolution to financial straits, would negatively affect state sovereignty, which is guaranteed in the constitution. In other words, the suggestion of state bankruptcy by a federal agent is an act of extortion on the state's sovereignty. I really wish that these jokers would read the document that they swore to uphold and protect.

On the economic front, unemployment rates continue to climb. Over the past six weeks, over 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment. That's nearly 10% of the total population! The next "official" report is due from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on May 8th, but it is based on telephone surveys conducted on the week containing the 12th of the month, so it won't show this overall impact. It's been a rough week for stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped from 24121 on Monday morning to 23729 on Friday afternoon.The drop came from tech trying to retool warehouses to furnish PPE and maintain social distancing. One tech, Elon Musk, wiped $14 billion (with a 'b') off of Tesla's net worth with the tweet: "Tesla stock price too high imo." I'm sure that his next board meeting will be lively. And lastly, gas is holding at $1.67/gal locally.

That love is all and love is everyone
It is knowing, it is knowing
That ignorance and hate may mourn the dead
It is believing, it is believing
- The Beatles, "Tomorrow never knows", Revolver, 1966