Pandemic Diary — March 15 to 21, 2021

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Monday, March 15   Deaths  2,324 (+2)   New cases  178

For obvious reasons, the search for the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has taken a back seat to the search for effective vaccines and treatments. But how the virus came to be is a matter of interest and it is being addressed. At this point, three possibilities have been discussed. Some have suggested that it was deliberately released by the Chinese in order to weaken or destroy their enemies. Although not impossible, this theory doesn’t make very much sense. What exactly did they expect to gain? Why would they have released it in that particular way? It’s a stretch. Another possibility is that a virus that was present in animals became dangerous to humans via natural mutation. There is no direct evidence for this, but we know that it has happened before with other diseases. We also know that there is a disease that affects bats which is caused by a virus that is in some ways similar to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But there are a few technical factors that have muddied the waters concerning a natural origin in this particular case. The final possibility is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was created in a lab–possibly as a potential weapon but more likely as part of legitimate medical research aimed at preventing epidemics–and that at some point it escaped from that lab due to an accident. Listed below are some information sources. 

An open letter from scientists that notes the many limitations of the World Health Organization investigation and describes what a full investigation would look like.

A recent Politico story by Josh Rogin. The article details some of the reasons why the accidental escape theory is so compelling. Rogin also points out the barriers that stand in the way of a full investigation. 

An article by Nicholson Baker in New York Magazine. I have linked to this before. It is a long piece, but take my word for it, the history of virus research in the last decade has been really fascinating. Baker makes it clear that the case for the accidental release of an engineered virus is all circumstantial; but what a set of circumstances they are!

Tuesday, March 16   Deaths  2,346 (+22)   New cases  267

E did her exercise class and listened to a Zoom talk on how to talk to Alzheimer’s patients, which had a number of very good suggestions. E has the slides if anyone is interested. Otherwise we spent the morning packing for another trip to Bend. We got on the road by 1:30. Before we left, though, we had a visitor out front.

In Bend we stayed at a Marriot Residence Inn in a room with a small kitchen. Quite a come-down from those deluxe view condos that we stayed in previously, but nice. Did you know that in a Marriot you’re not supposed to hang anything from the ceiling sprinklers? When we first noticed it, we could see the ‘no hanger’ symbol easily, but it was almost impossible to make out the text without a ladder. There should be another sticker next to the first: Caution: Do Not Stand on Bed to Read This.

We had take-out dinner from Joolz: seared haloumi with capers, sun dried tomatoes, arugula, and red onions; dukka with bread; and Moroccan Forbidden Black Rice Chicken. All wonderful. Nothing like this back home.

For TV, we watched National Velvet on TCM. This film, of course, features Elizabeth Taylor when she was twelve, young enough that Mickey Rooney was noticeably taller than she was.

Wednesday, March 17   Deaths  2,349 (+3)   New cases  239

We went back to Dutchman’s Flat for skiing. It was a nice sunny day. Spring on the mountain means that the days are warm enough in the afternoon that the snow starts to melt. It the night it freezes again. We got our skis on and started out at 10:30 in the morning. The surface was quite icy, which was not bad on level ground, so we zipped right along. But even slight inclines were tricky, either in the up direction or the down. At 11:30, we came to a long downhill section of the trail that would have been great fun on a normal day, but was just plain crazy on the ice, especially for oldsters. We solved this by going off piste and zigzagging across the main slope. That was fun too, but required lots of calculation and concentration. Surviving that, we reached our destination, a thing called The Water Tower, and had lunch there. The temperature was steadily rising and by the time we sat down to eat, it was relatively balmy. On the way back we found that the surface had softened and was well into the melting phase. Much easier for us to deal with.

In the evening we had dinner from Bethlyn’s Asian Fusion and watched a 1965 movie about the Irish playwright Sean O’Casey, screened in honor of St. Patrick’s day. It was called Young Cassidy, and featured Rod Taylor as well as two young up and coming actresses: Julie Christie and Maggie Smith.

Thursday, March 18   Deaths  2,353 (+4)   New cases  393

Just a few minutes from the Residence Inn, there’s a shop called Ginger’s Kitchenware. We stopped there in search of small sauté pan. Found just the right thing. Nice. Corvallis lacks a really good kitchen shop. Ginger also stocks something we’d never seen before: a large bulk section of infused olive oils and infused vinegars. There were only about ten olive oil infusions on display, but there were lots of vinegars. We were very tempted to get all ten of the olive oils and about fourteen vinegars. That way we could have had a different vinegar and oil combination every single night for almost five months! Wow. But then we thought, naw, that’d be a lot of trouble. 

Instead we went back home to Corvallis and unpacked. For dinner, M set out some leftover dukka and made a shrimp cocktail. After dinner, we worked on our puzzle. The first layer of 4D Budapest is now finished, which takes us up to 1884. At that time, the city is just a narrow band along the river; the rest of the area was farmland. 

Friday, March 19   Deaths  2,357 (+4)   New cases  381

Back here in valley, we had wind and rain in the morning. Not very pleasant. But eventually the day improved–less wind, less rain, a patch of sun here and there. M worked in the garden while E managed correspondence. In the afternoon E went back to the football stadium to get her second shot of the Pfizer vaccine. Again everything went well. And again it was a little cold out there.

In the evening we started the second level of the Budapest puzzle, then watched an episode of 20 Minutes. Melek’s husband Ali has a plan to break her out of prison. He’s getting advice from a crafty ex-con named The Cat, and also a bit of help from Cat’s grown daughter, Raven, who is played by Turkish actor Müjde Uzman. Ali has managed to get himself hired as a cleaner in the staff housing wing of the prison. But the prison blueprints that he and The Cat used in their planning are out of date, and Ali finds a wall where he expected a door! Rats. Now, he’ll have to improvise. Tension!

Saturday, March 20   Deaths  2,362 (+5)   New cases  339

Our old outdoor table is gone, the one that Eve got while she lived on Estaview Circle almost 30 years ago. It was a rustic, wooden thing that had served us well. We had tightened its bolts two or three times over the years and restained it often. It was still solid but the top pieces were warped a little and it was too big for the spot under the apple tree where a table is needed these days. So today we put it out by the curb along with two old flower pots and a ‘Free’ sign. Within hours, only the sign remained. 

E felt pretty lousy for much of the day, probably as a reaction to yesterday’s shot, but was still very active. She went downtown for a hair appointment and then went around town picking up a few things she’s been needing. For dinner we got tacos and virgin margaritas from Tacovore and matched them with our own taco sauce and tequila. After dinner we worked more on Budapest. 

Sunday, March 21   Deaths  2,363 (+1)   New cases  224

Today is the 360th day of Pandemic Diary record-keeping. Time for another chart of the Oregon death toll. In the period ending March 21st, the average death rate was less than five per day. As you see, this is a steep decline from the previous period. The rate of positive tests in the last ten days has been under 2.5%. 

Today we needed to get some fish for dinner and a few other things at the grocery store. We decided to walk so as to get some exercise and took along M’s cheapo backpack to carry stuff. It was a very dull day, cool and overcast. But it was mostly rainless, so walking was pleasant enough. 

We’re excited to be making travel plans, thinking about a trip to New York in August. At this point, brother J is helping us to possibly find a place to stay at Lake George. 

We’ve been doing some more work on the modern map of Budapest, which fits over the top of the 1884 one. Now it looks like this.