Pandemic Diary — May 24 to 30, 2021

Monday, May 24   Deaths  2,624 (+2)   New cases 284

After more than a year of the pandemic our charts are getting crowded with too many data points. It’s time to simplify, time to focus on the overall trend of the pandemic. So, rather than reporting at ten-day intervals, the Pandemic Diary will henceforth publish monthly COVID severity charts. We hope this change will make it easier to see the big picture. The first of these charts is below. It shows data collected through April 30. Our next chart will come at the end of May.

Tuesday, May 25   Deaths  2,628 (+4)   New cases 424

It seemed like just another ordinary day: exercise class and infusion for E, garage/yard chores for M. Then more errands. Later on, though, our attention turned to matters anniversarial. Were there gifts? Cards? Dinner out? At a good restaurant? Inside with table service? Was there cake? Taittinger? There may well have been.

Wednesday, May 26   Deaths  2,639 (+11)   New cases 399

E went for her infusion and M set up his new streaming box. Then H dropped by and brought us a cheesecake! Was it the goopity kind with the sweet toppings and the cutesy crust, the restauranty kind of cheesecake? Nope. H makes the real stuff and it’s really tasty. In other news, we both took long naps. E provided Cirello’s pizza and green salad for dinner.

In COVID news, there is renewed interest in the possibility that the virus was produced in a lab and was then accidentally released into the wild. CNN did a feature on it and Biden has just asked the CIA to investigate it. Donald McNeil, a former NYT science reporter who initially resisted the idea, has published an interesting piece on why he has changed his mind. As McNeil puts it:

We still do not know the source of this awful pandemic. We may never know. But the argument that it could have leaked out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology or a sister lab in Wuhan has become considerably stronger than it was a year ago, when the screaming was so loud that it drowned out serious discussion.

One thing McNeil mentions is that early scientific dismissals of the lab leak possibility were based on the idea that genetic engineering of this type always leaves a particular tell-tale mark in the genetic structure of the new product. Since this COVID virus did not have the tell-tale, it must have been of natural origin. It turns out, however, that this argument was based on obsolete science. In recent years papers have been published that describe new techniques that do not leave such a tell-tale.

Thursday, May 27   Deaths  2,660 (+21)   New cases 433

Tertulia at Coffee Culture. It was raining a bit, but J and R got there early enough to get an outside table beneath the eaves. E brought our four sit-upons to make the cold metal chairs more tolerable. The rain soon faded away. We still wore our masks to go inside and order, then took them off outside. Everything is so much more relaxed than it was.

Friday, May 28   Deaths  2,665 (+5)   New cases 433

E is counting down her remaining infusion sessions. She has just six more to go. In the afternoon she did her usual Zoom yoga, which was slightly marred by audio difficulties. M is in the mood to get rid of unnecessary stuff. He has disposed of some stereo components and the old Apple TV via Craig’s List. (A pair of “vintage speakers” fetched $50.) This morning he put several items out by the sidewalk with a Free sign, and all but one of them are gone. (Nobody seems to want an eleven foot long length of garden hose. What’s wrong with people?) And he’s about to mail his old laptop to some buyback outfit in Cincinnati, who have offered him $118 for it despite it’s warped case and iffy battery. 

In the afternoon we had a nice visit with P. She came over at 4:00 and we sat at the patio table and had margarita wine cocktails, spanakopita, olives, and slivers of cheesecake. The weather was breezy but not too cold. A pleasure to see P, who is always gracious. 

In the evening we started watching a Spanish language series called Well Hidden Secret (Secreto Bien Guardado). The series is divided into ten 25-minute episodes. We were interested enough to watch three of them. In Argentina in 1940, a young Jewish girl and youngish Nazi lawyer fall in love. Oh boy. 

Saturday, May 29   Deaths  2,666 (+1)   New cases 376

The Pandemic Diary is excited to report that sometime this morning M’s offer of a free eleven-foot garden hose was finally accepted. That stuff is gone. And, just before lunch, a new thing arrived, an accent chest from India. It is part of the Global Archives Collection from Jofran, Inc. which is headquartered in Massachusetts. But it was shipped from California in its original Indian cardboard and is being sold through Wayfair via Kelley Clarkson Home. So we know it must be good. 

E went downtown in the afternoon, primarily for the purpose of a 15-minute consultation with a potential hair stylist, but then also to be able to look around all over the place for a bunch of things she needs for her multitude of projects. She didn’t find much to her liking, though. After three and a half hours, all she brought back was a tiger. What does E need with a tiger? you might ask. And how did she manage to get it into her car?

Sunday, May 30   Deaths  2,668 (+2)   New cases 257

E went straight to work watering the front yard this morning, while M made waffles. Not too long afterward, E was off to her infusion appointment and M worked on downloading some forest maps and an app to read them off-line. Before lunch E had a Skype call with her friend M in Madrid. M and her husband, the other M, are planning to go out and celebrate because it has been two weeks since their second vaccine doses. 

Later on we worked on summer vacation plans. We looked at car rental and E spoke to Mrs. H and MB about some things she wants to do as part of our trip to the northeast in August. Then we made holiday plans for Memorial Day, mainly focusing on potato salad(!) and hot dogs. Then it was time for a walk, followed by a dinner of leftover pizza and salad on the back patio. The temperature was in the eighties today, dropping into the seventies just in time for dinner. The back yard looks just ridiculous these days–peonies, poppies, iris, yarrow, upright phlox, plus roses all over the place. One of our milkweed plants is doing especially well. 

After dinner we finished watching Well Kept Secret. Was it deep? No, uh-uh, wouldn’t call it deep; wouldn’t call it believable either; might call it contrived. It moved right along though and it had its own unique style. Plus, the cars and the clothes were very good. M noticed the patina on the hubcap of the period correct Chrysler. E admired the spunky character and elegance of the main actress. Plus, the show was well-meaning in its way. It was earnest, kind of sweet. And, as such series go, mercifully short.