It seems pretty clear that this isn't going to end for several years. In the small part of America occupied by my heart trust in government and authority has eroded completely and trust in expertise is not far behind. The only path left is to act cautiously and believe nothing.

The story as of today:

The US is breaking records every day. We are blowing up exponentially and the first peak now looks like initial peak in China did at the end of the first peak 

After a couple weeks of Where Are All The Deaths? articles, the deaths are catching right up.

Reported today that <50% of US citizens are even sure they'd get a vaccine if there was one. I am definitely in this category.

Oh, and post infection immunity may only last a couple months.

The current list of symptoms can be summed up as "feeling in any way sick"

California re-closed yesterday, cities and counties are following suit in small numbers.

My state just issued a mask mandate. 

There is vague reporting about potential long-term damage from the virus

Schools may or may not open. Lots of folks have strong opinions. It will probably be patchwork and peril.

In this town there doesn't seem to be any free asymptomatic testing except for veterans.


I just spent some time looking at case graphs for other countries. I guess I'm glad that it isn't a complete disaster everywhere. I don't know what the US is going to do. People here are still going to work,  drinking at the bars (at least outside). There was a strange thing on a local Facebook group where local restaurants were advertising that they'd serve people without masks. I couldn't see much without an account but there's an "Apocalypse" subgroup. Dunno.

A couple kids tonight were riding their BMX bikes at the schools across the street. One of them wrecked pretty badly and was nursing his injuries.
"You gotta get up and show off skateboarders are coming," shouted his friend.
There were a couple guys skateboarding down the sidewalk perpendicular. The BMX kids couldn't see it, but one of the skateboarders hit a crack or something and crashed as well. It was twenty seconds of chaos and the most exciting part of the day.