It’s Wednesday. But we’re not over the hump. Not by a long shot.
Imagine going on a 25 day rafting trip cut off from civilization and coming back to all this.
Worldwide infections topped 200,000. It took more than three months to get from 10 to 100,000 cases and less than two weeks to get from there to 200,000. China now has become an importer of coronavirus cases, rather than an exporter.
Much of the discussion about the strain on the internet is around people social-distancing and working from home or doing video conferences. But Hiawatha Bray reminds us that there are also a lot of online video-gamers stuck in the house. And gamers will do what gamers do. If you’re not a gamer you can visit an online museum. If you’re an artist you can submit works for a virtual gallery.
The airlines are asking for huge bailouts. They’ll probably need them to survive. Henry Blodget suggests reasonable terms.
Sanjay Gupta is pissed off at people holding hands. Rand Paul, being Rand Paul, is throwing up roadblocks to the relief bill, adding an amendment on Afghanistan that has nothing to do with coronavirus. The meme of the week is “Your grandparents were called to war. You’re being called to sit on your couch. You can do this.” OK Boomer. In Italy, some bright kids used ingenuity and 3D printing to overcome a shortage of ventilator valves. They were threatened with a patent lawsuit.
And there will be no kissing of the Blarney Stone until further notice. It’s something you probably didn’t want to do anyway.