Steve Benson for April 22, 2021

Happy birthday to me.I was born on a day like today 78 years ago.

You might be having a happy day…Earth, not so much.

A thought occurs to me – perhaps covid-19 (and all variants) IS a present Earth is giving itself? After all, it might not be bad for everything ELSE on this ball, if we were brought down a few pegs, if not completely removed. I think George Carlin had a bit like that? Where the earth is gonna shake us off like a dog sheds dead fleas after treatment, or something?….. It might just happen yet. :-\

I’ve wondered that too. By the way, love your avatar.

There is a new BIRD FLU STRAIN only in birds at the moment…

Cheery.

Yes, COVID is bad, but it didn’t have to be this bad. Why was it this bad, you ask? Consider:

2020-01-07 • Presidential Daily Brief: “Analysts concluded [coronavirus] could be a cataclysmic event.” • Trump did nothing.

2020-03-11 • World Health Organization declares a global pandemic.

2020-04-15 • While continuing to lie about the pandemic, Trump suspends US funding for WHO.

2021-04-23 • US coronavirus deaths: 584,359 (67 weeks after PDB; 8722/week; 4% of the world’s population; 26% of its COVID deaths)

 For comparison …

1941-12-07 • Pearl Harbor attack: 2,403

2001-09-11 • terrorist attacks: 2,977 (5 weeks after PDB warned Bush about it)

Korean War (33,686) + Vietnam War (58,220) + Afghan War (7,970): 99,876

WW1: 116,516 (83 weeks for US; 1403/week)

WW2: 418,500 (195 weeks for US; 2146/week)

Civil War: ~620,000 (213 weeks; 2911/week)

Spanish flu: ~675,000 (~117 weeks; 5769/week)