Day 108 of Self Quarantine                       Covid 19 Deaths in U.S.:  128,000

New Zealand Rugby Match

I could not believe my eyes when I saw the news video of fans screaming and cheering side by side.  I thought it was from a year ago.

Nope.  It was from a country with amazing leadership and citizens who care about beating the pandemic, not about politicizing culture wars.

“Rugby has returned to New Zealand – but unlike in other countries where professional sport has begun to be played inside empty stadiums, last night almost 20,000 fans packed into the Forsyth Barr stadium in Dunedin to watch local favourites the Otago Highlanders take on the Waikato Chiefs.

“For rugby fans in New Zealand it marked the perfect end to a week celebrating the lifting of all coronavirus restrictions after Jacinda Ardern’s government declared the nation virus-free.”

Today, our stark news shows how much our sacrifices of the last three months were wasted by the stupidity of Donald Trump, his sycophants in his administration, the Republicans in Congress, and most Republican governors.

US Daily Corona Cases

To put this in perspective, as a vulnerable I self-quarantined on March 13 when there were ~1,000 cases per day.  Now we are in far worse shape as a country than we were in early March with >45,000 confirmed daily cases.   That is not the worst of it.  The CDC estimates that the U.S. total case count is 10 times higher than the 2.5 million confirmed cases so far.  To make matters worse, the data on cases and deaths lags reality by at least 7 days due to the different ways that each state reports public health data.

On Sunday, HHS Secretary Azar warned:

“Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar warned Sunday that time was running out for the U.S. to curb the spread of coronavirus as cases rise across the country, particularly in the American South and West.

“We’ve got the tools to do this,” Azar told NBC’s Meet The Press. “But the window is closing, we have to act, and people as individuals have to act responsibility. We need to social distance, we need to wear our face coverings where we can’t social distance, particularly in these hot zones.”

“As a doctor, a scientist, an epidemiologist, I can tell you with 100% certainty that in most states where you’re seeing an increase, it is a real increase,” Frieden said. “It is not more tests, it is more spread of the virus.” “

Today, the Washington Post shared this article “With Trump leading the way, America’s coronavirus failures exposed by record surge in new infections.”

Yes, I desperately want to hug my grand children again.

Yes, I want to go out to eat for a nice dinner.

Yes, I want to have the economy boom again.

No, I do not want to die because my fellow citizens are not taking this pandemic seriously.

I am glad New Zealand is a shining beacon in the world.  I wish America, the country I love, would notice AND pay attention to New Zealand’s beacon AND ACT accordingly.

I wish I had the resources to move myself and my extended family to New Zealand where we could all get back to a reasonable New Normal.