- Well, that escalated quickly. Yesterday we learned:
- The World Health Organization finally called the spread of coronavirus a pandemic.
- The attending physician of the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court, Dr. Brian Monahan, briefed Senate Staff in a closed-door meeting that he expects anywhere from 70 up to 150 million people to become infected.
- March Madness is to be played in front of empty arenas. (For now.)
- Also there will be no crowds for almost all NCAA tournament championship games this week.
- The Houston Rodeo was cancelled.
- Major colleges across Texas extended spring break and then went to online classes only.
- The Dallas Greenville St. Patrick's Day Parade cancelled (which seemed like big news in the afternoon).
- And then the bombshells all within one hour of Trump's speech last night:
- The Jazz/Thunder NBA game was shockingly shut down right as it was about to start after a doctor ran onto the court and huddled with officials and teams. Minutes later we learned that one of the team's players had been diagnosed with the virus.
- Minutes after that, the NBA, rocked by the news, then dropped the shocker of announcing it was suspending it's season.
- And then the kicker: Tom Hanks and his wife announced they have been diagnosed with the virus
- So why are there cancellations? Italy. We could likely to be headed towards the situation in Italy if he won't stop the spread now. Hey, have I done a 180 on my opinion on the coronavirus? Absolutely. And without any qualification or excuse, I'll say it: I was wrong.
- The tote-board kind of surprisingly shows less reported cases yesterday in the U.S. than the day before. But that's still the second highest day so far. Yesterday's numbers will be an anomaly:
- And, I'm sorry, Trump's address to the nation last night only made things worse. That was not a calming speech. Heck, he looked and sounded like he had contracted the virus himself and then was forced to read a script he didn't want to read. And what was up with gaffes and misstatements that he and his administration had to immediately correct? How did he get all that wrong?:
- "We will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days" with "exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings" No, Homeland Security had to correct that immediately to say it didn't apply to Americans. Period. You can come back home.
- "[These] prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things" No. They don't. He even had to tweet immediately afterwards that it didn't apply to trade and cargo.
- Insurance companies have "agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments." No, they haven't.
- And what was with all the sniffles in that speech? You want to see it edited down to just his crazy heavy breathing moments? Here you go.
- I had a full blown Slump-Shouldered-Idiocracy-Is-Here moment when I flipped over to regular Fox to watch Trump's address at 7:58 p.m. only to see Sarah Palin singing "Baby Got Back" on the Masked Singer. (Video.) And from there the screen changed to the former host of Celebrity Apprentice sitting in the Oval Office. Maybe we have entered into the End of Days.
- If anyone needs tips on Social Distancing, hit me up. I've been an expert in it all my adult life.
- About the only positive thing coming from the pandemic is that society's views about work might change. We don't need to be in the same building to accomplish things. We can do it remotely, whether from home or the safety of our own office, without the need to be in the same room with a group of people.
- Oh, I forgot. That NBA game was cancelled before tip-off last night because it was NBA player Rudy Gobert who had been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Then we see this video from a couple of days ago mocking the virus by touching every reporters phones and recorders. (Watch it.)
- Clever: To the tune of "We Didn't Start the Fire":
- I've told the story before about my one and only faithful assistant's obsession with the Rolling Stones and her crazy bad luck that goes with it. About three years ago she flew to Vegas to see them only to have the show cancelled the night before because of Mick Jagger's laryngitis. Last year, she bought tickets to the Stone's show in New Orleans only to have the performance cancelled because of a hurricane. (That was Hurricane Barry, by the way.) Then a couple of weeks ago she happily announced she had bought tickets for the group's show at the Cotton Bowl in May. You don't suppose . . . .
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