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USA Coronavirus News Today

Milestone: "The number of known cases of the novel coronavirus surpassed 20 MILLION globally on Monday at 8:10 pm ET, according to data held by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. The United States has reported the most deaths and the most confirmed cases worldwide." The USA has over 25% of all COVID-19 cases globally. It only has 4% of the population.

Here’s something to consider if you have children or grandchildren or are around children:
“Children may be able to spread Covid-19 just as easily as they spread another type of coronavirus -- the common cold, said William Haseltine, professor at Harvard Medical School. "Children up to 5 years old can be highly infectious to other people. It turns out they have a thousand times more virus in their nose than you need to infect, so they're very, very contagious.” However, unlike the common cold, COVID kills.

Local News: The head of the Missouri Health Department stands by his decision NOT to recommend statewide masks or social distancing policies, even as the federal government has designated the state a “red zone” for new coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, “there’s far more spread across the state than earlier in the spring” (back when most of the US went under "lock down"), said Chris Prener St. Louis University who has been tracking COVID-19 data. In other words, community spread of COVID has gotten out of control within the general population. Those dying are no longer “just nursing home residents”… Even so, "personal freedom" is considered more important in Missouri than measures that could help slow the spread of coronavirus.

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With the ongoing COVID-19 situation in the USA, I doubt there will be any end to the Stay-at-Home social isolation in 2020. Hopefully, sometime in 2021, a safe & effective vaccine will become available & then pave the road to normality. Right now, I feel rather like a prisoner counting off the days of imprisonment as things in the “outside world” of our geographic area continue to worsen.

Despite all, I am making the best out of these unusual times. Although it was more or less a slow photography day, a pretty butterfly very briefly visited the zinnias I grew from seed. Thus, I did get at least one photo to share on this very hot & humid August day.