Covid Summer: another graph

While the number of Covid cases in the US has continued to rise for the past few weeks, I've been consoling myself by looking at the number of deaths, which for a long time, kept falling.

Maybe they've got some good care protocols figured out, I thought. Maybe the virus isn't as dangerous as we'd first thought.

Bruce gently reminded me that the death rate is a lagging indicator, though. And the past three days, I've noticed that it's starting to catch up.

Do you see the little bend at the end of this graph where it turns from being a downward slope to an upward one? That's where the 7-day average starts to change: once again, the number of deaths from Covid in the US is rising.

Sadly, almost the entire country is experiencing a rise in cases--today, all states but Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine are either "mostly the same" or "rising."

Despite this, the president is threatening schools that if they don't open in the fall, they'll lose federal funding. And there have been no general updates about Coe's plans for having in-person classes, so I'm continuing to plan for f2f.

For example, I reserved a room for the Writing Center's first staff meeting--an important event for reconnecting with consultants, setting a tone for the year, and introducing new staff. Usually, we cram into the Writing Center Space for a fun photo op, complete with hugs, laughter, and whooping.

From fall 2019. This is not going to happen in fall 2020, alas.

This year, we'll be meeting in Sinclair Auditorium, which usually holds hundreds. Now its limit is 100.

Sinclair Auditorium when the presidential candidates visited last fall.  It'll be me up on the stage for our meeting. Gazette photo.

We found out this morning that the roommate of one of Aubrey's co-workers has a roommate who tested positive for Covid. Aubrey's co-worker tested negative, but she and Robbie are self-isolating for a while anyway. Yikes: that's about as close as we've gotten to Covid so far. At least as far as we know. We're going to bring them some pesto Sunday night--our usual time for dinner together. Maybe we'll have a distanced meal, maybe we'll just meet via Zoom.

Meanwhile, the weather's turned cooler after about 2 weeks of hot n humid. We had one monarch caterpillar on our milkweed, but I can't find it now: eaten by a bird?

On the other hand, a tulle row-cover has kept the Evil White Butterflies from laying eggs on my kale; no green caterpillars there!

And we are about to begin tomato season.

Summer rolls on, despite Covid.