Dispatch from Coronaville: Coping

The past few days have been a little tougher.  To deal with the overwhelming changes that have engulfed our lives with the arrival of the Coronavirus, I've settled on two means of coping.

The first is to stop fighting the tide. Not literally, and not even verbally. It's more about just accepting that what ever we will do as as country is what we will do.  I've given over a lot of emotional energy to frustration at the foolishness in our nation's approach to the crisis. I can't do that any more.  I've accepted that we do not have (and likely will not ever have) sufficient testing. I've accepted that when they finally do come up with some sort of a treatment or vaccine, a chunk of the country will refuse to take it. I've accepted that any steps to address this crisis that have been shown to be effective elsewhere in the rest of the world will be rejected out of hand by a significant portion of my countrymen. I've accepted that many otherwise intelligent and decent people will throw their lot in with the most absurd conspiracy theories and Covid truths as revealed by Dr. So and So in his latest YouTube rant. I've accepted that we are likely opening up too soon and that it's possible that we will pay the price by continuing to lead the world in COVID-19 cases and deaths.  I've also accepted that many people will somehow deny that this is actually happening and make excuses as to why somehow it was all inevitable anyway. I've accepted that the economic cost will be more than we can imagine. I've accepted that we will muddle through.

The second is to take things one day at a time. I can't have discussions about what school will look like next year or how long it will take to develop a vaccine. I can't worry about what summer plans will be, or whether my sons will get to go swimming anywhere at all this summer, about whether we'll be able to go visit family in Florida. Right now my goal is just to make the most of today and let tomorrow take care of itself.

The numbers: The United States has reached a total of 1,153,303 cases of COVID-19. This represents an increase of 8% over the past three days and about 11,000 fewer than I predicted. The total death toll is now 67,365, a 7.4% increase and also 11,000 fewer than I predicted. By Wednesday, May 6, I predict there will be a total of 1,245,567 cases of the virus and 72,350 deaths.

I'm glad to report the number of new cases has dropped once again in Florida and Ohio, although Nebraska has had it's three day number of new cases rise to it's highest level yet.
Florida: 36,070 total cases, 0.16% of the population.
Ohio: 19,335 total cases, 0.17% of the population
Nebraska: 5,333 total cases, 0.27% of the population

New deaths are down as well so that is good news. All three states saw fewer new deaths over the the last three days.
Florida: 1,378 total deaths, a rate of 3.8%
Ohio: 1,021 total deaths, a rate of 5%
Nebraska: 76 total deaths, a rate of 1.4%