It's been a rough 3 months in the U.S. as we went from a few hundred to a few thousand to holy-shit-this-is-getting-out-of-hand in the number of COVID-19 cases. We were all told to do 3 things: Wear a mask, social distance, and wash our hands. As a result, the number of new cases began to level off and actually drop.

Another casualty of the pandemic was the economy and employment. As non-essential businesses went into hibernation mode (and white collar jobs went to a work-from-home model), layoffs and hiatus dropped the cash flow in and out of wallets and businesses to a fraction of their former levels. Economists are now able to report that we've entered a recession.

The combination of these two things has caused a number of states to "reopen" probably sooner than they should, and a certain segment of society (*cough*MAGAts*cough*) to ignore the initial warnings that helped level off and decrease new cases.

The effect of this is as expected.

Arizona, for example, is seeing the number of new cases start rising again. North Carolina is breaking previous records for number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19. Other states are seeing an uptick in new cases.

It's still too early to determine how many new cases are going to come from the protests around the country after the murder of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis. There are definitely new cases here in DC among the DC National Guard:

So in this "controlled" example, the National Guard members didn't social distance and didn't wear masks, and ended up with the virus. It's almost as if the CDC and WHO know what they're talking about!

So for readers in states that are "reopening", a word (or two) of caution: Your state leaders may be more interested in tax revenue than your personal health. It's up to you to protect the latter, since your state's leaders won't.

Wear a mask when out in public. Keep your distance as much as possible. Try to keep your hands clean. You - and the people around you - deserve that.