No News is Good News

As we near 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US, the New York Times put out what will surely become a historic and iconic front page (actually several pages) listing names and brief descriptions of over 1,000 victims. You can read the whole thing online. The story of how it came about is also interesting. The NYT has done front pages that were all graphics before, but never one that was all text. It's striking and heartbreaking.

In happier news, after a couple of really rough days, my family member with COVID-19 is sounding a lot better. There are definitely ups and downs throughout the day, but I talked to them on the phone today and they were sounding a lot better than they had been - they were up sitting in a chair, told me about the food they'd been eating, and had even used the restroom without getting too winded. They were still a little short of breath talking to me, but their oxygen had actually been turned down, after being increased a couple days ago. Today was their last dose of Remdesivir. They've only been using it at that hospital for a week, so aren't sure exactly when it takes effect, but from what I've read, it could shorten the duration of their illness by about a third. Their partner was also confirmed to be positive yesterday, but their symptoms aren't as bad and they didn't need oxygen, so were sent home to recover - someone from the hospital calls to check on them twice a day, and I and several other family members are lined up to call throughout the day as well.

I have three episodes of Mad Men left that I wanted to finish tonight so I could say I had finished by Memorial Day, but I may not have time, and also I don't want it to be over yet. What a great series.

"Time and Life" Season 7 Episode 11