In SC, we continue to set new records for coronavirus cases

I found this image of the coronavirus on Wikipedia.

I found this image of the coronavirus on Wikipedia./file

Just thought I’d post this, and see what y’all think of it:

Here are some more details on that.

As for what I think of it — well, I think people trying to go back to “normal” is crazy. Of course, I’m one of those people who could stand to keep going like this pretty much indefinitely — as long as I could hug my grandchildren.

23 thoughts on “In SC, we continue to set new records for coronavirus cases

  1. Doug T

    …..and nobody cares. Went to a store wearing a mask (me, not the store) and everyone stares. News media 24/7 on police brutality. No balance. People too dumb or lazy to stay home or protect themselves or others.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Thanks for getting that started, Doug. I was starting to worry that no one would comment on this, what with the primaries going on and all…

  2. Scout

    Our percent positive about doubled today – probably a similar reflection to the increase in average weekly cases relative to number of tests in the tweet you reference above. DHEC put out another statement today pretty much begging people to wear masks. The non mask sentiment is so strong around here. It is disheartening. I really don’t understand people.

      1. Scout

        Lucky for him, Atticus never got to witness social media in action. It is abundantly clear now.

          1. Brad Warthen Post author

            When I say “kinder time,” I mean… everybody in town might have known somebody was an idiot, but they didn’t tell the whole world, in writing, in 280 characters or less.

            They didn’t have to. Everybody in town KNEW, and who cared about the rest of the world?…

              1. Bryan Caskey

                Don’t worry, though. We canceled Gone With the Wind, so racism is solved now.

                Nice work.

                1. Ken

                  Fake news alert.

                  As the WaPo reports:

                  “HBO Max’s decision was immediately misrepresented for maximum outrage, with alarmist headlines blaring that the film had been “pulled” and critics taking the company to task for giving in to the most censorious Torquemadas of the American left. (The film can still be viewed on a variety of platforms, including Vudu, iTunes and Amazon Prime.)”

                  https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/hbo-max-isnt-censoring-gone-with-the-wind-its-reframing-it/2020/06/10/d78544ec-ab3e-11ea-94d2-d7bc43b26bf9_story.html

                  1. Bryan Caskey

                    Ann Honrady confirms the movie isn’t available on HBO. It was, but now it’s not. That’s what “pulled” means. But, oh, it’s gonna come back with “added material” explaining the context? Please. If it makes the Hollywood people feel better about themselves, go right ahead. It’s not solving anything. It’s a completely empty and useless gesture. It solves nothing. It helps ZERO.

                    In fact, it’s worse than that. The problem is the people who do this are going to feel like they “did something”, when in reality, they didn’t.

                    1. Brad Warthen Post author

                      There are a lot of rather emotional things happening right now. Such as the talk about “defunding the police.” Which continues to puzzle me, because it seems that anything that would help — better training, psychological screening, more bodycams — would cost more money, not less.

                      Frankly, I think we see some of these ideas put forward because of what I’ve worried about all along: There are no practical ways to “fix” the problem. (As I’ve said, and some of my friends here have gotten upset with me for saying it, we can keep on improving police departments — which we’ve been doing for decades, and must continue to do — and there will still be occasional incidents like the one in Minneapolis, just fewer, and we will continue, understandably, to get extremely upset about each of them.) And people are demanding a fix, and we’re all paying attention, and people are trying to be obliging — because they’re nice people (at least, the ones who are trying to do something are).

                      And of course the entertainment industry is very susceptible to social trends, as it should be. So we get things like cancelling those “reality” shows about cops. Which I think is great, because I’d like to see ALL “reality” TV cancelled. They’re all forms of voyeurism that the world definitely doesn’t need.

                      The cop shows are particularly bad, though. I think I saw about five minutes of one maybe 20 years ago, and it was extremely offensive — the cops going about dealing with the little crises that erupt in the lives of poor people, and people watching it for ENTERTAINMENT. It was gross, and indicative of a sick society.

                      So no loss there…

                  2. Bryan Caskey

                    How about Animal House? Will that need an explainer as well? Dirty Harry?

                    I mean, these fictional movies could be …problematic.

                    Couldn’t have audiences watch a movie without some explaining and schoolmarm’ing. That would just be too dangerous.

                2. Ken

                  Just what makes you so absolutely certain that this “helps ZERO”? And what threshold constitutes “solving” the problem? Isn’t it at least possible this could contribute something towards greater enlightenment?

                  Sounds like you have trouble with added information, y’know knowledge and all that — which could actually help inform some members of the audience, maybe provide them with some measure of greater understanding. Do you simply assume that “everybody knows all that stuff already”?

                  GWTW, unlike the other movies you mention, is historical fiction. That means it contains or makes reference to actual historical events. So added historical context, it seems to me, could potentially serve a useful purpose. I don’t understand your visceral, angry reaction, as if somebody is taking something away from you? Is this what the angry white male sounds like?

                  In any case, the movie has not been “cancelled,” whatever that may mean. So your original post is still false.

  3. Randle

    I just saw this after watching the governor’s press conference. Again, pleas to wear masks and social distance, but there will be no enforcement of these guidelines, as the police don’t have the manpower. And no return to shutdowns, as the governor says they don’t work, except the countries that have eliminated or contained the spread the best, shut down early and decisively. New Zealand has zero cases right now, thanks to their lockdown.
    And it doesn’t look like we are going to do the amount of testing needed to control the spread that way.
    And the economy needs to recover.
    If the virus continues on its current path, our hospitals will be overrun, and going anywhere will be out of the question for old people like me until we get a vaccine. We could have done much better.

    1. Ken

      The gubner thinks like a dogmatic Republican:
      Keep the “heavy hand” of government out of it and let “the market” decide things.

  4. Doug T

    I help out at my family’s diner on Saturday mornings. I am reluctant to go, but I wear my mask and bathe my hands in Purell every 2 minutes or so. I’m thinking it will be slow, no one will come eat breakfast.

    The place was swamped all morning.

    The customers’ average age is probably close to 70. Groups of old men and old ladies sitting together, eating and then chatting awhile. I was flabbergasted. Do people read? Can’t they see on the Johns Hopkins covid map all of the Pee Dee is beet red?

    I keep thinking of John Prine’s song “Hello in There” about lonely old people. There are so many folks who are pretty much sentenced to lonely life but we go crazy after 2 months and risk our lives over a couple of scrambled eggs and a little conversation.

    I don’t get it.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Yeah, I don’t either.

      But then, I’m enough of an introvert that I’m not normal.

      Also, I’m blessed with human company. As I said before, if I had to pick someone to be stranded on a desert island with, it would be my wife. So except for not getting to hug my grandkids (and grown kids as well), this situation is fine by me — in fact, I dread returning to “normal.”

      But apparently, this has been hard on some folks. That doesn’t excuse foolishness, but I have to remind myself that lots of people are quite different from me…

    2. Brad Warthen Post author

      Yeah, I don’t either.

      But then, I’m enough of an introvert that I’m not normal.

      Also, I’m blessed with human company. As I said before, if I had to pick someone to be stranded on a desert island with, it would be my wife. So except for not getting to hug my grandkids (and grown kids as well), this situation is fine by me — in fact, I dread returning to “normal.”

      But apparently, this has been hard on some folks. That doesn’t excuse foolishness, but I have to remind myself that lots of people are quite different from me…

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